KFP Next Gen 2: Assassin's Strike
by jweaks2016
Summary: A long thought dead assassin, sent by the mysterious villain Overlord, returns to unleash her wrath upon Po, the other masters, and their new students. With Overlord planting assassins and spies amongst the group of heroes, who can be trusted and who will survive? With destruction and death around every corner, a Jade Palace master will die and another will be severely wounded.
1. Previously, on KFP Next Gen

**Here it is, everyone! The first chapter of the new story.**

**What I've decided to do is for every first chapter of each new story in this series, I'll do a "Previously, on KFP Next Gen" with a little summary of all of the major things that happened in the past story.**

**Other than that, I think that's about it!**

**Enjoy the next chapter and remember to leave a review!**

*Previously, on KFP Next Gen*

"You the boss?" The bull asked.

"Yes, I am. Please, don't call me 'boss.' It sounds so…stuck up. Call me Overlord for now. Are the supplies ready?" The figure hissed.

"Yes. All of our supplies and ammunition are ready. We just need to rally more troops and acquire our sleeper agents, along with buying more weapons." The bull explained.

"Good. Things are coming together nicely. Gather more men in private. We don't want to attract any attention and ruin our plan. As for the sleeper agents, make sure they are in every city as well as in... the prize, is what we'll call it for now. Continue to smuggle weapons into the city via old fruit carts and clothing boxes. Understood?"

* * *

The snow leopard named Xin shrugged slightly. It wasn't his place to judge. He had to focus on his goal for now. Besides, he had to sleep. He hadn't realized how tired he was until just recently. Traveling without sleep for five days really made a guy tired.

He set up camp on the top of the mountain and pulled his blanket over him.

He had to look respectable for the person who told him where the Dragon Warrior was.

The person who sent him on his journey.

The one who told him where to find his father's killer.

Tai Lung's killer.

* * *

"Why give him a swift death when you could torture him?"

"Go on…"

"Hit him where it hurts most. His family. Specifically, target his son. After that, his wife and then you go in and slowly make that fat panda suffer!" Overlord spat.

"An excellent idea, but why are you helping me? What is in it for you?" The snow leopard asked.

"I'm not concerned with the Dragon Warrior himself. I've had a vision that his son will defeat me if I am not able to stop him first. Taking out Tang's whole family is just an added bonus. If I am to succeed in conquering China, the boy will need to be out of my way. Do not worry about his friends. I'll take care of them!" The figure explained.

* * *

"Don't come in here! You don't wanna see this!" Dega's father warned.

The white tiger, Kiro, turned back to face the engravings. All around him, detailed and precise carvings of a ruined Chinese city engulfed in flames were engraved in the walls. To his right, a small army with what looked to be the Elemental Hazards were charging towards a jaguar in light and dark blue combat armor with an army right behind him. To his left, Kiro saw what looked to be Max, Sierra, and Arizona leading another small army against a young snow leopard with a giant mass of soldiers behind him. Behind the white tiger, he saw Po, Tigress, him and the others fighting what looked to be a black tiger in all white and black, with a flaming staff by their apparent foe's side and a large army behind the tiger. Finally, in front of Kiro, a greatly enhanced figure shrouded by a black hood stood before what looked to be Tang. The figure's face or species could not be made out, though. The only body part that was shown was the figure's right arm, which was covered by a black combat armor with horns and spikes traveling up the side. A carving of two cobras intertwined in each other was plastered on the top of the armor. An inscription of "The prophecy will be fulfilled" was edged into the wall above the giant figure.

* * *

Overlord just stood before her with his arms crossed. He shook his head in pity and was trying to decide if he should use his strength to end the tiger master or conserve it for possible later use.

He decided to kill her now.

He rushed towards the injured master and slammed his knee into her chin. Tigress fell backward and hit her head on the rooftop, making her vision blur. Overlord slammed his foot down on the female tiger's face eight times before starting to choke her slowly.

His eyes gleamed as he witnessed Tigress slowly start to die before him.

* * *

But most of all, Overlord thought of his stepfather; the one who had given him the idea of conquering China, and the one who drove him to where he was now.

His stepfather; a wolverine named Sage.

* * *

"What's going on?" Takami asked, looking around and rubbing his eyes.

Soon, Lupa, Lily, Hope, Skyler, and Kidd were out in the hall also.

"Okay, who woke me up? I have a bone to pick with them!" Skyler threatened.

Max, Arizona, Faith, Ryo, and Kiba were the next ones to arrive, just as confused as everyone else.

"Hey, wha happen?" A sleepy Dega asked, stumbling into the room and collapsing on the ground, falling back asleep.

"WHO. WOKE. ME. UP?" A very grimy and very angry Kaizer demanded, storming into the main hall.

"ACK! Kaizer's up! Everyone hide! Run! Save yourselves!" Kiba exclaimed, running around the hall before ducking under a bench.

* * *

Master Shifu stated, "…Zina is still very much alive. And she wants blood."

* * *

"Fine! Do whatever you want! Just remember when you're in over your head that I tried to warn you. I tried to steer you away from this." Kai exclaimed, storming off, away from his brother, Sin.

* * *

"You're not a very bright individual, but I hired you for your talents, not your brains. Phase one was to smuggle enough ammunition and supplies into the various cities for our cause. Once the banker gets us the rest of the money we need, we'll have enough to buy the necessary weapons." The figure in black explained.

"And you deal with this banker directly?"

"Of course not! I make the transactions with one of my henchmen. Much easier that way and much more efficient." Overlord scoffed. "Ready some of the soldiers! I want to try to recruit a new member…"

* * *

"Mr. Ping, Tang over there found you unconscious in your home, sprawled out on the floor with a very weak pulse. He saved your life by bringing you here." An ox doctor stated, walking into the room and writing a few things down on his clipboard.

"What happened to me?" The goose asked.

"You had a minor heart attack, Mr. Ping."

* * *

"You may think you have won, panda! But Overlord has a plan! He ALWAYS has a plan!" Xin shot hysterically before running out of the palace.

* * *

Soon, Sin was approaching the farm outside of the valley. The plantations and fields were growing their different types of vegetables while the orchards were busy growing fresh fruit. The shabby old grey tool shed stood about a hundred feet away from the fields, and Sin noticed that the door was slightly open.

Walking up to the cabin, he noticed that a symbol of two intertwined snakes was carved into the wooden door.

_That wasn't there before…_ Sin though, growing slightly worried.

The fox pushed open the door to find his brother, bound to a chair with a gag in his mouth.

A dagger stuck out from where Kai's heart was in his chest.

Sin rushed over and quickly checked his brother's vitals to see if Kai was still alive.

But it was too late.

Kai was dead.

* * *

The black tiger sighed before she pushed open the door to Mr. Ping's room and sat down across from him. The goose was obviously startled to see her, but was also confused as to her identity.

"I don't believe we've met before. Do I know you?" The goose asked.

"Yes," Zina replied, carefully placing a bomb under her chair and setting the dial, "I am an old…acquaintance…of your son's. We knew each other from way back when. I just wanted to see how you were doing. I heard about your incident."

* * *

_We're not done yet, panda. Not by a long shot._ Overlord thought._ This is only the beginning._


	2. Sending the Assassin

**Hey everyone! I hope you guys enjoyed the little recap. Not much, I know, but I just felt that I had to put it in there for effect.**

**Anyway, here's the first chapter with new content! Enjoy!**

*With Dega and Lily, a month and a half later*

The snake and the tiger lion were at the top of a very large hill overlooking the valley of peace beside a slingshot outline. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun shone down upon the village, bathing it and all it had to offer in the bright beams of light. It was another beautiful day in the Valley of Peace.

"Doesn't this seem dangerous to you?" Lily asked with worry as she got into the slingshot outline.

"Is there a tiny voice in the back of your head telling you not to do this?" Dega questioned.

"Yes."

"Tell it to shut up, 'cause we're DOING THIS THING!" The tiger lion cheered, hopping into the slingshot.

"If we die, I'm blaming you." The snake stated, getting into the green outline.

"Don't worry! We'll be fine! I made sure to put a safety cushion at the end of this thing! I think…"

"You THINK?"

"LIFTOFF!" Dega shouted before cutting the outline of a rope.

The two shot out of the slingshot and started to fly over the valley. While Dega was shouting with glee, Lily was screaming in terror.

*With Tang*

The teenage panda walked over to the window in his room and looked out upon the valley. Aside from his two friends who were soaring across the village screaming and yelling, everything was peaceful and nice.

If everything was so cheerful and right with the world right now, then why wasn't Tang happy?

The adopted son of the Dragon Warrior was still getting over the unexpected murder of his grandfather, Mr. Ping. He didn't understand why someone killed his grandfather, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with Xin, the son of Tai Lung and one of his most recent enemies.

*In Tang's flashback*

"You may think you have won, panda! But Overlord has a plan! He ALWAYS has a plan!" Xin shot hysterically before running out of the palace.

*End of flashback*

_Overlord. Who the heck is Overlord?_

Tang sighed and sat down on his bed. So many questions were bouncing around in his head, but he had no answers.

_Who's Overlord?_

*With Dega*

The two students started to fall towards the earth at a rapid speed now.

"HEY! I DIDN'T PUT THE CUSHION THERE!" Dega shouted as they hurtled towards the large pillow.

"MATH CAN SAVE LIVES!" Lily cheered before they slammed into the cushion. "I made a few adjustments. I just hoped my math was correct."

"You seemed so freaked out when I told you I hoped I put out the pillow!"

"Had ya going there, didn't I?"

The tiger lion laughed. "Man, I love…this. I love this! It's great that I finally have somebody to do this stuff with other than Kiba!"

"Maybe we could do other fun things!" Lily exclaimed, bouncing on the pillow.

Dega's eyes widened in fear. The last time she had said that, she went ballistic with happiness and he felt like he might've died.

"Gotcha again!" The snake cheered.

Dega's head sunk deeper into the cushion and he sighed. "Don't EVER tease me like that!"

*With Ryo*

Ryo Mercer was in his zone. The black and grey wolf swung from the Talons of Fury in the Jade Palace training room, landed perfectly on the jade balancing turtle, and flipped into the area of spinning wooden beams with spikes on them. Ryo leaped, ducked, and dodged each beam that hurtled towards him as he made his way through the course. He was about halfway through when his girlfriend, Skyler, surprised him.

"Hey Ryo!" The yellow fox called out.

Being that it was only him in the room at the time, and that everything was quiet before, her sudden greeting startled the wolf, making him lose his focus and being hit multiple times in multiple places by the spike beams.

Ryo stumbled out of the area and collapsed on the ground in pain and exhaustion. "Hey Sky."

"Oh! Did I break your concentration again?" The fox asked in embarrassment.

"A little. What's up?"

"Do you remember what tomorrow is?"

"Tuesday?"

"More specific?"

"Tuesday, the eighteenth of the Chinese calendar?"

"A little more?"

"Tuesday, the eighteenth of the Chinese calendar, of our planet?"

"No! Come on, Ryo! It's our anniversary tomorrow! The day that you first asked me out! I can't wait to see what you have planned!" Skyler stated cheerfully, walking out of the room.

"Uh…" Ryo sputtered. "I'm in trouble."

*With Overlord*

"How is everything? Are our sleeper agents ready and in place?" The figure in black asked, walking up to his general.

"Yes, Overlord. We also have the necessary number of weapons. We just need to gather more men in every city and valley." The ox replied.

"Excellent." Overlord stated, walking around the room. "Everything is going according to plan."

"If I may, Overlord, you do realize that by killing his father, the Dragon Warrior will bring the hammer down on all of us." Jaguar X stated calmly.

"Just let me worry about that for now. I have a plan." Overlord replied.

*With Chao, in the Emperor's palace*

Chao, a tiger at heart and the leader for one of the teams that guarded the emperor of China, was a bold, daring, and sometimes funny individual. Not much is known from Chao's past, since he didn't like to talk about it. The only thing he would tell people when they asked was, "It was hard, at the time."

His team, team 59, was one of the best in the palace and was the Emperor's favorite to have with him whenever he went places. It consisted of three soldiers: Himself, Drift, and Specter.

Drift was the funny guy of the group, being that no matter how bad the situation was or how deadly things became, the hyena always had something witty to say. Drift was kind, lighthearted, and very handsome, and would often score up more dates than any other guy in the palace.

Specter was the quiet one. The white monkey was kind most of the time, serious, and was always battle ready. He carried his sword, a small crossbow, and a dagger with him at all times, which weirded some out. Nobody had ever seen Specter's face, because the chimp had it wrapped with grey cloth all around his head, so you could only see the very brim of his nose and his grey eyes.

"So, gents, guess who scored up a date with THE Wila Hiadouka?" Drift asked confidently, walking into his team's room.

"You." Specter replied stalely, reading a book.

"Uh, yeah. But, guess what? She's bringing a friend with her, too!"

"Not interested." The white monkey responded again.

"What if I told you that the date is set for two hours from now and that her friend is Nini Tusado?"

Specter looked up with wide eyes and then stood up.

"I'll go get ready." The chimp said before walking off for the washroom.

"Is it really Nini Tusado?" Chao asked, sitting up from his bed.

"Sure is! I told her that you would be there! You know how she has a massive crush on you!" The hyena replied.

The tiger shook his head slowly. "Sometimes I think that you're worse than half the bad guys we fight."

Drift cackled in his hyena laugh. "I'm an evil genius!"

*With Zina*

The black tiger's ears perked up when she heard someone knock on her door.

"Come in." She stated.

Overlord opened her door and stepped inside. "How are you fairing today?"

"Alright, all things considered. Food still sucks and my bed is as hard as a rock, but everything else is fine!"

"I can't change the food problem, but if you want a better bed, then steal one from one of the shops at night. Right now, I'm sending you on a mission."

"What is it?"

"Kill any warriors of the Jade Palace who might pursue my identity and my plans, specifically, Kiro Takimuro."

Zina smiled and stood up. "Gladly. When do I start?"

"Now. Oh, and Zina?"

"Yes, Overlord?"

"Destroy any evidence that they've collected on me."

**Taadaa! End of the chapter!**

**Hope you guys enjoyed! I'm gonna post the next chapter in a few days, so stay tuned!**

**Remember to leave a review and follow/favorite the story!**

**More to come…**


	3. Time of Dying

**Hey guys! Here's the new chapter for all of you! Enjoy!**

*With Dega*

"Well, I'm going to go back up to the palace. You coming?" Lily asked, slithering up to the palace steps.

"In a moment. I need to find Max and ask him something."

"Alright! See ya up there!"

With that, the snake started up the stairs, leaving Dega behind.

The tiger lion sighed. "Gotta see Max…"

Dega jogged around the valley for a little while, trying to find his tiger friend. Eventually, he spotted Max fighting eight bandits. They were overpowering him slowly.

"HEY SLIMEBALLS!" Dega shouted, making the thieves stop and turn to face him.

The tiger lion unsheathed his swords and plunged into the fray.

"Why're these guys attacking you?" Dega asked his friend.

"They weren't! They were attacking her!" Max replied, fending off a wolf with one hand and pointing to a quivering teenage tigress.

"Hello! What might your name be?" Dega asked the girl, punching a bandit in the face and blasting another with his power swords.

"Catherine…"

"With a name like that, I doubt that you're from around here!" Max stated, kicking a thief in the chin.

"My mother is…from Europe."

"Ah, Europe! I'm gonna visit there someday!" Dega cheered, summoning two boulders and slammed them into some wolves.

"I'm Max! This is—"

"My name's Niko Sledge!" Dega cut in.

Max glared at Dega, but the tiger lion just smiled and shrugged.

"People call me Cat…" Catherine said.

"A tigress named Cat! Ha! I love it! Classical puns!" The tiger lion cheered before he whirled his swords around and slammed them into the ground, making the bandits quiver as electricity shot through them before passing out.

"Anyway, I need relationship advice. Ya see, L—"

Dega was cut off by Cat, who tackled him to the ground in a hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"I helped too…" Max said.

"Yeah, but you're off the market! Don't complain!" The tiger lion jeered. "Anyways, you're welcome. We're just doing our jobs."

"What kind of job requires you to beat up people?" The tigress asked.

Dega smiled. "The fun one."

Max rolled his eyes. "What were you saying, D—"

"Niko!" The hero shot.

"Right…Niko. What were you saying?"

The tiger lion glanced at Catherine and then back at Max. "I don't need your help anymore. I found a more reliable source for my questions. As an added bonus, I don't need to tell my sister, who keeps no secrets!"

"So you two are heroes here, is that right?" Catherine asked, getting off of Dega and changing the subject.

"Yep." The two students responded in unison.

"Can I see where you guys live? I bet it's amazing! I'm touring China and I want to see all the big places! I heard the Jade Palace is one of the best places to go! Can you guys take me there?"

"No." Max replied.

"Sure!" Dega exclaimed.

Max turned to his friend and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Relax, buddy-bro; I'm sure that Po won't mind a guest!"

"Tigress might."

"Since when do you worry about Tigress?"

The Bengal tiger sighed. "This won't go well…"

*With Zina*

The black tiger looked out over the area from which the white tiger master sat, meditating. Zina smiled and jumped out of her hiding spot and walked towards Kiro.

"Well, I was afraid that I wasn't gonna be able to kick anyone's butt this week; looks like I was wrong." Kiro stated without moving or opening his eyes.

Finally, the tiger master stood up and faced Zina. The first thing he noticed was the mark of two intertwined snakes on Zina's shoulder pad.

"Well that's a nifty drawing. Seems like I see those every time something bad happens. Kai dies; there's the symbol on the door; Mr. Ping dies; there's the symbol on the hospital door." Kiro observed.

"And now when you die, there will be the symbol on the ground by your body." Zina hissed.

"Well, you seem pretty sure of yourself."

"I see you haven't made one of your jokes yet. Afraid?"

"I'm afraid that you'll bore me to death before you stab me through the chest. There, is that better?"

"KYA!" Zina roared as she charged Kiro.

*With Lily, back at the Jade Palace*

"I wonder what's taking Dega so long." Lupa stated, standing next to Lily.

All of the students, except for Max and Dega, were lounging around there little teen cave that they had set up in one of the palace's large rooms. Posters hung from the walls, a pantry full of food was in one of the corners, and lots of bean bags and chairs were set around the room. A skylight was stationed on the ceiling to illuminate the room.

"I think I know the reason now!" Kiba cheered as Dega, Max, and another tigress entered the room. "What's up, guys?"

"Not much. We saved Catherine here from some bandits. She's touring China and wanted to see this place. She's from Europe." Dega explained.

"Europe! Fancy!" Kovu exclaimed.

"So you got attacked by bandits, huh? Welcome to China!" Zan stated, making everyone crack up.

Catherine blushed. "Yeah. Max and Niko saved me, though. I'm very grateful."

The students looked at each other in confusion at the mention of Niko. They all sighed and rolled their eyes, though, when Dega pointed to himself and put his finger to his mouth.

Once Max had introduced Cat to the students around the area, the room fell silent for a moment.

"Hey," The male tiger lion started, putting his arm on Cat's shoulder. "Have you ever wanted to go cliff diving?"

After some explaining and convincing, Catherine agreed to try it out.

_But, Dega said he'd take me cliff diving._ Lily thought in shock.

"It's been nice knowing you! I'll visit your funeral!" Kiba cheered as the tigress left the room.

Once they were gone, Arizona started to make kissing noises.

"Looks like Dega has a girlfriend!" Ryo said.

"Who would want to date my maniac of a brother?" Lupa exclaimed before chuckling.

_I don't like her…_ Lily thought, growing angry.

*With Kiro*

Kiro collapsed to the ground, holding his stomach. He looked over at his battered staffs, which were a good twenty feet away from him.

"Any jokes now, Kiro?" Zina asked.

The white tiger just coughed violently and continued to clutch his gut. He looked down and saw Zina's dagger sticking out from his stomach and almost vomited.

"You underestimated me, Kiro. That was your first mistake." Zina said before drawing the symbol of the two snakes in the ground and starting to walk away.

"It was KNIFE knowing you!" Kiro called before collapsing to the ground, and coughing.

The assassin just shook her head and continued to walk off.

**WHAT? Will Kiro make it? And who is this new girl, competing for Dega? Find out next chapter!**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**More to come…**


	4. White Turned Red

**Heyo guys! Pretty shocking ending to that last chapter, huh? No? You expected that to happen? Darn. I thought I was being clever…**

***Starts to cry***

**Just kidding. Men don't cry!**

***Sniff***

**Anyway, while I get some tissues, I'll keep you preoccupied with this next chapter! Enjoy!**

…

…

**Oh yeah, and remember to leave a review!**

*With Dega*

"If you wait one moment, I need to ask my dad where the best spot to cliff dive is." Dega said, starting to walk away.

"He supports this kind of stuff?" Cat asked.

"Sure does! He's actually the one who taught me half the stuff I know!"

The tiger lion walked to the spot where Kiro said he would be meditating, but when he got there, all Dega saw was his father with a blade in his stomach, on the ground next to a symbol of two intertwined snakes.

"DAD!" Dega called out as he ran up and crouched next to his dying father.

"Oh, hey buddy! I was just gonna take a nap…" Kiro mumbled, looking wearily at his son.

"Someone broke my dad! Why can't I have nice things?" Dega half joked before taking out his swords and summoning a rocket cart. "Come on. We're going for a ride."

Once Dega had loaded the master into the cart he got Catherine into the cart also before taking off towards the temporary hospital.

The three sped down the steps and raced through the valley streets, causing villagers to jump out of their way and yell at them.

"Hi, I'm Kiro. Nice to meet you." The white tiger murmured, sticking out his hand for a handshake.

"I'm Catherine. Don't worry! We'll get you help soon!" The tigress comforted.

"You're cute. Hey Dega, do you have a girlfriend yet?" Kiro called out.

"You're losing your mind from that wound in your stomach! But, no, I don't have a girlfriend yet per say!" Dega replied, steering the cart to the left.

"You should date him." Kiro stated, turning back to Catherine. "I'm sorry…I don't think we've met. I'm Kiro. Nice to meet you."

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Cat called out to the tiger lion.

"I've been TRYING to summon Big Boom rockets onto this thing, but it can be difficult!" Dega shot. "Bad situation. Bad, bad situation."

*With Zan*

"So Lupa, are you gonna hang out with Sin at all?" The avian asked.

"I haven't seen or heard anything from Sin since Kai's funeral. So I guess the answer is no." The female tiger lion responded.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow."

"Sure! I'll see if Lily can come along!"

"Don't bother." Lily hissed. "I have work to do. Skyler, will you please come with me for a little bit?"

"Uh, sure. Bye guys!" The yellow fox stated, walking out with Lily behind her.

"I was actually thinking of it being just us." Zan prodded.

"Oh." Was all Lupa could manage. Her face was beginning to turn a little red. "Sure. That sounds…nice."

*With Ryo*

"Hey, Takami, I need some help on what to do with Sky tomorrow for our anniversary." The wolf whispered.

The Bengal tiger summoned and put out a small flame multiple times in boredom. "What about dinner at Bit-Wa's? Maybe afterwards you guys could take a tour of the hot springs and maybe go for a dip there?"

"Sounds like something she would like." Ryo thought aloud.

"And maybe after that you and her could, uh, bow chicka wow-wow chicka-chicka wow." Kiba joked.

Takami and Ryo glared at the wolf dog, making Kiba feel like holes were being bored into his head.

"Well, I think I should go now." The wolf dog stated before exiting the room.

"Sometimes he can be funny and sometimes he can be rude and disgusting." Faith stated, shaking her head.

"Agreed." Hope added.

"Here-here." Kovu put in.

"Anyway, I think that I'll do it. I'm sure she'll like it." Ryo said to Takami.

"Glad to be of assistance." The Bengal tiger stated, going back to summoning his small flame in his palm.

*With Lily*

"Uh, Lily, what's up?" Skyler asked.

"I need you to make me look as beautiful as you, Lupa, and Faith do." The snake said plainly.

"What? You're beautiful the way you are! Come on!"

Lily lowered her glasses. "Not to Dega, I'm not. I need to look pretty so I can bet out that Catherine."

"Oooooh. I see what's going on. You like him!" Sky began to tease.

"Logically. Now, do whatever it takes to make me look nice."

"Alright. I'll get my products and be back here in a few minutes." The yellow fox replied, jogging off.

*With Tigress*

"Kiro? Mei Ling wants to see you! Kiro?" Tigress called, walking out into the area where Kiro was meditating.

The tiger master gasped and raised her hands to her mouth when she saw the symbol of two snakes next to two broken staffs and a pool of red dirt and grass in the green field.

"No…"

Tigress turned her head towards the screams from the valley and saw a green blur shoot through the streets, heading towards the temporary hospital.

"Po…! PO!" The female tiger shouted, running back into the palace.

*With Kiro, ten minutes later*

As soon as Dega had burst through the doors with his father, Kiro was immediately put into a stretcher and wheeled down a hall.

"GET HIM TO OPERATION ROOM D!" A doctor shouted.

*In Kiro's subconscious*

Kiro was standing in a grassy field surrounded by a white light.

_The afterlife. I know this place._

Kiro looked dead ahead of him and saw his parents, Song, Los, Sashi, Sato, Master Oogway, and Master Shifu standing a good distance away, smiling at him; their faces were full of happiness and pride.

*Back in reality*

The medics burst through a set of double doors and began to pour different types of medicine down the master's throat and on his wound.

Kiro rolled his head over and looked at his terrified son, standing in the doorway.

"Excuse me! Please move!" A goat doctor stated, pushing Dega out of the doorway as he began to shut the two doors.

Kiro smiled at his scared son. "Bye-bye!"

*In Kiro's memories, an hour earlier*

The white tiger sat down at his desk in his room and looked at the sketches that he had collected of the two-snake symbol over the past month and a half.

He had traced the one on the door when Kai had died, and he traced the one on the jail wall of the old emperor's cell, but he had only managed to get about a third of the one from the hospital explosion when Mr. Ping died.

Kiro spread out his sketches of the two intertwined serpents on the table and studied each one closely.

_There must be a connection with these symbols…_ The white tiger thought.

After a while of studying and pondering, the answer hit Kiro in the face like a hard punch.

_They all stand for death!_

Kiro sat back in his chair and sighed.

_But what are the connections between the old emperor, Kai, and Mr. Ping? I would say that they were all murdered, but the old leader of China took his own life! Unless…_

Kiro thought back to the old warden who showed them the cell before quickly leaving.

_Unless the old emperor didn't kill himself, but was murdered by that bull warden! The warden wasn't really a warden! He was an assassin!_

The white tiger closed his eyes and shook his head. This led him back to his big question.

_But an assassin for who?_

Kiro sighed and put his sketches in his pocket. Then wrote down his theories that he had just made on another slip of paper, then shoved that in his pocket as well.

_I think I'll go meditate._

*End of memory*

Kiro's eyes fluttered open as he looked around at the doctors busy at work, trying to remove the dagger from him.

"Bring in Tang and Dega. Now!" Kiro commanded.

"No! I'm sorry, Master Takimuro, but they can't come in here. If you have something to say or something to give them, please let one of us have it." A nurse stated.

The white tiger hesitated and looked at a doctor who was waiting to deliver his message.

"Fine, give them these."

Kiro slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his three sketches of the snake symbol and handed them to a doctor, who exited the room.

*With the doctor*

After exiting the operating room, the doctor went down the hall and into the restroom and removed his scrub mask. Jaguar X sighed and then tore up the three sheets of paper that Kiro had given him.

With that, X threw the scraps in the trash, put his scrub mask back on, and went back into the operating room to find Kiro passed out again with doctors working on him.

*In Kiro's subconscious*

The white tiger stood in a long hallway, which had no walls, but pictures hung in place, and a red carpet down the aisle.

Kiro slowly walked down the hallway, looking at each picture, which displayed scenes from his life. The weird thing was, though, that the pictures were playing the scenes. He could see the moments of his life unfold before his eyes.

_The fire which killed my parents, my apprenticeship with Tai Lung, my first meeting with Los and Sashi, my first meeting with Po and the others…_

Kiro continued to walk down the hallway, admiring the pictures.

_The fight with Sage, Los and Sashi's deaths, my fight with Feng and Song's death, my encounter with Zina for the first time, meeting Sato and Emperor Jow, fighting in Japan and meeting my mom…_

Kiro was almost to the end of the hallway.

_My wedding with Mei Ling, Dega and Lupa being born, training them and playing with them, joking and having fun with the other masters…_

Finally, the white tiger has reached the end of the hallway where a new picture frame hung.

It had was playing the scene of the doctors operating on him.

*With Po*

The grandmaster of the Jade Palace burst into the small hospital.

"Where is he? Where's Kiro?" The Dragon Warrior demanded.

A nurse pointed to an operating room and Po burst in, making doctors and nurses shout and scream.

"MOVE!" Po yelled, and the doctors cleared out of the way.

"Oh, hey Po! Didn't…expect to see you…here. How's Tang holding up?" Kiro asked, stumbling over his words.

"He's fine. Take it easy there, buddy. I'll get ya healed in a moment. Take a deep breath, because this is gonna hurt a lot."

The tiger master nodded and sucked in a deep gulp of air. Po grabbed Zina's dagger and wretched it from the white tiger's stomach, making Kiro blow out all his air and shout loudly in agony. The panda put his hands over Kiro's wound and concentrated. He felt his Hero's Chi mix with his inner peace and flow from his body to his friend's wound. When Po removed his hands a moment later, the wound was healed. Not even a scratch remained.

*With Dega*

The tiger lion's head shot towards the operating room door when it burst open.

Kiro waltzed out in a happy and cheerful mood. "I'M ALIVE!"

The masters and students erupted in shouts of glee and joy as they all hugged Kiro and Po.

*With Zina*

_So, the tiger survived. I forgot that the Dragon Warrior can heal people with his power. Well, it looks like I'll have to return to Overlord for… more supplies to deal with this matter._

The assassin stood up from her perch and ran across the rooftops, heading back to the hideout.

*With Jaguar X*

Once the white tiger was out of the room, Jaguar X removed his mask and sighed.

"Hey, I don't remember seeing you work here before. Let me see your credentials." A goat doctor stated, walking up to the cat.

X looked around the room and saw that all of the other doctors were gone off to who knows where. He was alone with this doctor.

"One moment. They're right over here…" X replied, walking over to a counter where some papers lay.

Instead of picking up the papers though, Jaguar X picked up a surgeon's blade. The cat turned to the doctor and plunged the knife into the goat's chest, making him gasp a little before passing on.

X picked up the goat's body, opened a cupboard towards the far end of the room, and shoved the lifeless doctor in there before closing it up, carving the two intertwined snake symbol into the door of the cupboard, and leaving the hospital.


	5. Confession

*With Overlord*

The figure in black turned around when he heard a rift open behind him. Jaguar X stepped through and into the room, still wearing his scrubs.

"And…?"

"He gave me the evidence that he had collected on you. It was just sketches of our symbol, but I tore them up and disposed of them nevertheless." X reported.

"Excellent. What about Kiro? I heard she's killed him."

"Negative. The Dragon Warrior came in and healed him at the last second. I didn't wanna blow my cover, so I didn't do anything."

"Nor should you. The white tiger master's death would have been an added bonus, but it wasn't crucial to our plan…yet. There will be a time where he must fall, though. You did well, X." Overlord complimented.

"Thank y—"

The jaguar was cut off by Zina, who threw open the door to the hideout and furiously stormed in.

"I need explosives." Was all she said.

"What for?" The figure in black asked.

Zina disappeared around the corner, and came back with some time bombs and sticks of TNT a few minutes later.

"What FOR?" Overlord asked, his voice stronger this time.

"I'm going to blow up the Jade Palace." The black tiger replied, stopping in the doorway.

"No. Not now, anyway. Sit down, Zina. We need to talk." The figure commanded.

*With Dega*

"Psst. Zona!"

Arizona turned to face Dega as the warriors and masters made their way up the Jade Palace steps.

"Yeah?"

"I need your help!" The tiger lion whispered.

"With what?"

"You're the smartest person I know, other than Lily. I need you to educate me in the ways of knowledge!"

"Why so curious now?" The wolf asked quietly.

"Come on, bro! Don't ask so many questions! Will ya help me when we get back to the palace or not?"

Arizona thought for a moment while walking. "I mean, I did have plans with Sierra tonight, but I guess I can rearrange my whole schedule and cancel my date with her to help you."

"Great! Thanks!" Dega stated, not picking up the wolf's sarcasm.

Zona sighed in frustration and kept walking.

*With Chao*

"So, how was your guys' date?" The tiger asked when Drift and Specter when the two walked in.

After a few cancellations due to missions and conflicting schedules, the hyena and chimp were finally able to go on their date.

"Great! We had a nice dinner with the girls and Specter here scored points with Nini!" Drift replied.

"That so?" Chao asked.

"She's perfect…" The white monkey said dreamily.

"Easy there, killer. She wants a second date with Spec…alone." The hyena continued, raising his eyebrows up and down.

"Ah… I see. Well, hats off to you, chimpy!" Chao congratulated.

"I told you not to call me that…" Specter hissed.

A knock sounded at the team's door and a guard stepped in.

"The emperor of China requests your presence, along with three other teams immediately." The rhino stated before walking off.

"Well boys, it looks like we might have another mission!" Drift cheered, walking out in front of Chao and Specter.

*With Dega, two hours later, in his room*

"It's HOPELESS! I'm never going to get this stuff right!" The tiger lion moaned, slumping his head into his arms.

"Why do you wanna be so smart all of the sudden anyways?" Zona asked. "And I demand an answer, since I sacrificed my evening to help you."

Dega sighed. "I want to impress Lily. She's so smart and everything, and I'm about as intelligent as that pillow on my cot."

"So, you like Lily and you figure that if you become smarter, she'll like you better?"

"Ding! Give the man a prize!"

"Dude, you wanna know a secret?" The wolf asked.

"Sure. Let's hear it."

"The way I got Sierra, how Ryo got Skyler, and how Zan is going to get Lupa, is that we all just acted like ourselves! Don't try to be someone you're not!"

"Well, I did write this kinda rap and song mix for her a little while ago… I can make some adjustments for it to sound better."

"Perfect! We'll go down to a club tonight, and you can sing it there! Max and I will even help you with the beat!"

"Really? You sure?" Dega asked in surprise.

"Yeah! It'll be great!"

The tiger lion sighed in relief. "Thanks, bro. Just remember that when I try to back out, don't let me."

*With Overlord*

"What did you say to Zina? She seems furious." Xin exclaimed, walking into the main room of the hideout.

"I told her that revenge combined with sloppy planning can lead to death. For example, Lord Shen, many years ago had that fate." Overlord explained.

"I see. Well, she may not like what you're going to do here soon."

"What she feels is not of importance to me. What will happen in the next three days is what will push our plan to the next step. Organize a meeting with our banker. I want to know how much money it would take to hire more men."

"Right away, Overlord."

As Xin walked out of the room, the figure in black leaned back in his chair and twiddled his thumbs.

_I just hope that my bomber doesn't get found out prematurely._

*With Catherine*

The tigress knocked on Dega's door softly.

"Come in." A voice croaked.

She slid open his door and walked in to find a very distraught tiger lion.

"So, what's the matter, Vega?"

"Dega. It's Dega. How did you find out my real name?"

"You're father said it when we were racing to the hospital. What I want to know is, why did you trick me?" Cat asked, placing her hands on her hips and smirking.

"I'm sort of a joker and a pranker. I wanted to see how long I could keep you fooled. Sorry about that."

"It's alright. I'm good at fooling others too. It's a hobby of mine."

"Same! Uh…Alright. I'm gonna level with you. You're great, funny, pretty, and all, but I—"

"Like the snake." Catherine finished. "I saw the way you look at her. I find it cute. Don't worry. I'm not making any moves on you. I just wanted to see how you were holding up."

"Wow. Thanks. Uh, see ya at the club tonight, I guess." Dega stated nervously.

"Don't worry. I'm sure she'll agree to your question." The tigress said before walking out of the room.

*With Dega and the others, at San-Ti-Fua's Night Club, three hours later*

"Hey, thanks for helping me you two. It means a lot." Dega said to Max and Zona.

"No problem, dude. Just one thing though, won't Catherine be angry?" Max asked.

"Nah, she knows. It's all good." The tiger lion assured. "Well, let's go."

The three walked up onto the wooden stage and looked out on the crowd watching them.

Dega could feel all of the eyes on him. It was very unnerving.

"Alright. This was a bad idea. Let's go home and forget this whole thing ever happened." The tiger lion said rapidly, hurrying off the stage.

Max and Arizona had to rush after him, pick him up, and place him at the center of the stage again.

"Don't worry. You stomp and rap and we'll do some kind of dance moves." Max whispered before returning to his spot.

A silence hung in the air for a moment before Dega spoke.

"Hi. I'm Dega and this is Arizona and Max. We're, uh, gonna do a little rap and song mix for you all. At any point…please feel free to…get up and…dance, I guess.

After clearing his throat, Dega began to stomp and clap on the stage, creating a beat. Soon, Max and Zona fell in with the same motion also.

"E'erbody!"

The three stomped twice.

"E'erbody!"

Again, they stomped. They would continue this every time Dega sang 'E'erbody!'

"E'erbody!"

Again.

"Let's get down to it!"

The three made a swift kick and stomped four times before Max and Zona started to do spins and flips to the side of Dega, who began his rap.

"My name is Dega or Vega or Niko!

Some say I'm a party!

Some say I'm a freak-o!

But I'm here to tell the truth!

Yeah, that's a fact!

That girl over there's givin' me a heart attack!

I've been around China,

Rippin' and ridin';

Dippin' and divin';

Runnin' and gunnin';

Slippin' and slidin'!

I'm going; I'm tryin'!

If I said I didn't love her then I'd be lyin'!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

I don't wanna be sad, miserable, or left alone!

My love for this girl is carved in stone!

Some people have this gift; they can snake charm.

They play their flutes and they do no harm.

But it's impossible!

Improbable!

But how?

Could it be?

It seems unlikely!

Illogical!

But the snake has charmed me!"

At this point, most everyone was dancing in the room now and cheering on the tiger lion, who was in his zone. All but Lily, who was in her chair with a shocked expression and a red face.

"E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

Yeah, it must be funny!

Yeah, ho, ho, ho!

That I put on this act; that I put on this show,

To tell her that no matter what I do,

That I can't shake these feelings that I have for you!

Lily, you're my everything!

Yeah, you're my all!

When I look in your eyes I feel ten feet tall!

When you speak to me, I'm in a free fall!

Girl, say yes or no, 'cause this is your call!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

E'erbody!

Let's get down to it!

E'erbody!

Anybody!

Somebody!

Let's get down to it!"

Once the tiger lion, Max, and Zona, were finished, everyone stopped dancing and cheered and clapped. After taking multiple bows and thanking everyone, the room fell silent when Dega held up his hand for quiet.

"Kinda weird how earlier today your dad was dying and now we're here, isn't it?" Max asked.

"Yeah, well that's how the Jade Palace warriors roll!" Dega replied confidently. "Anyway, thank you all for being awesome! Keep it up! But now, I have to ask you…"

The tiger lion pointed way in the back of the room.

"Me?" A hopeful girl asked.

"No, no, sorry. Behind you!"

"Me?" Another one asked.

"In front of you…"

"Me?"

"Nope, to the left of you…"

Eventually, the crowd figured out who Dega was pointing to and moved out of the way so he could see the stunned Lily.

"So, professor, whaddya say?" Dega sighed. "Is it logical to date me?"

Crane smiled and Viper bounced in joy slightly. Kiro nudged the avian master with his elbow. "Told ya so."

After a few moments of silence, the snake was able to find her voice. "Highly logical."

The room erupted in applause and shouts of happiness as the crowd carried Dega and Lily out of the club and into the streets, where Lily wrapped around her new boyfriend and gave him a monstrous kiss.

"Aw, that's adorable!" Faith and Skyler squealed.

Kiba made a vomiting noise in joking, but the ladies of the group slugged him multiple times.

**There it is! Sorry it wasn't the most exciting chapter, but I've been building this up for a while!**

**I made this song by myself from scratch. It took a little while to create the tune in my head and the rhymes, but I did it. Tell me what you thought of it in the review section!**

**I hope you all enjoyed!**

**I'll post more tomorrow hopefully!**

**More to come…**


	6. Death of the Chimp

**Hey guys! Sorry if that last chapter felt a little rushed. I read it over a few times and it felt like it went too fast. I'll make some changes to that when I go back at the end of this story and make some edits and detail adds.**

**Anyway, hope you all are enjoying this story so far! Sorry that there hasn't been much action, in my opinion, but I promise that I'll pick it up again soon!**

**Here's the new chapter!**

*With Chao, Drift, and Specter*

"When is the Emperor going to get here? We've been waiting for a while." A guard whispered to Chao.

"I'm sure he'll be here. Usually when someone asks that question, we don't have to wait much longer." The tiger replied.

Just then, the trumpets and horns sounded as the serpent made his way into the room.

"I can't believe I was right." Chao murmured.

Chao, Drift, and Specter, along with all of the members from the other three teams, stood at attention as the snake took his place on the throne.

"At ease, soldiers. I'm afraid I have some bad news. You see, we have reason to believe that one person in all of you put together, is a traitor." The Emperor stated gravely.

Immediately, whispering and murmuring spread through the soldiers like a plague.

"Quiet! Quiet, all of you! Quiet! Now, we don't know who it is yet, but we know for a fact that it is one of you. This person is a traitor—an assassin sent to harm us all. From who, you may ask? We don't know. We are currently investigating all of you as we speak. If anyone has anything that would help us, please feel free to talk with us afterwards. Be wary, be alert, and trust no one. You're dismissed." The snake explained.

Slowly, everyone made their way back to their rooms.

"Well, that is certainly unnerving to hear." Specter exclaimed.

"Don't worry guys! If I was the traitor, then I'd have did you guys in a while ago!" Drift laughed.

Suddenly, a guard slid open the door and stuck his head in. "What a traitorous thing to say, Drift!"

"Kiono, get outa here!" Chao spat. "We're nervous enough as it is! We don't need people listening into our conversations!"

"Yeah!" Drift agreed. "Besides, eavesdropping is a very traitorous thing to do!"

"I'm gonna be driven mad by all of this…" Specter groaned.

*With Arizona, the next day, lunchtime*

"I can't believe that you thought of this, since the restaurant we were going to go to is out of reservations!" Sierra exclaimed, taking a sip of her water.

The two students were sitting at a table outside the palace, overlooking the fields filled with trees and flowers and a waterfall a little ways away. The sun hung in the air, but its heat was blocked out by a light breeze that swept through the air.

A miserable Dega in a tux walked over to their table with a pitcher of water. "More to drink, Sierra?"

"Uh, Dega? Remember what we talked about? Since I gave up my evening with her last night to help you, you have to give up your afternoon today to help us. Now, treat us like we're guests at a restaurant, please." Zona reminded him.

The tiger lion sighed. "I'm sorry. More to drink, ma'am?"

"No thanks. Do you know when our food will be ready?" Sierra replied.

"I'll check. One moment." Dega stated before walking into the palace.

The two could hear the chef and Dega from where they were.

"HEY KIBA! YOU KNOW WHEN THEIR FOOD'LL BE READY?" The tiger lion shouted.

"IN A MINUTE!" The wolf dog shot. "WHY DO I HAVE TO HELP ANYWAY? WHAT'D I DO?"

"YOU GAGGED WHEN LILY AND I HAD A MOMENT LAST NIGHT! YOU DESERVE THIS PUNISHMENT!" Dega yelled.

The wolf dog and tiger lion came back out of the palace. Dega was trailing behind Kiba, who was carrying the meals on a platter.

"Sorry for the wait." Kiba apologized, placing the plates of food in front of Arizona and Sierra.

*An hour later*

"Hey, do you think that I could borrow your waiter and chef when you guys are done with them?" Ryo asked, jogging up to the wolf and his date. "The reservations for our restaurant were lost. I'm panicking."

Zona thought for a moment, looking at the worried Dega and Kiba.

"Sure! Knock yourself out!" Was his reply.

"AAAAAWWWWW! COME ON!" Dega moaned with Kiba weeping on his shoulder.

*With Overlord*

"What's troubling you, Xin?" Overlord asked, not turning around in his seat to face the leopard.

The surprised son of Tai Lung was about to ask how the figure knew that something was bugging him, but quickly dismissed it. "I'm worried that our bomber is going to get found out. What if the heroes catch on?"

"They will eventually. That's what makes this whole ordeal fun!"

"You think this is a game?"

"A consider it to be Chinese checkers. Right now, we have a slight upper hand, but soon we will have them cornered. Eventually, we will leave them with no escape."

"You're going insane."

"I already am. I've changed my mind on the detonation time. Signal to the bomber that the time is now. I want the barracks blown to bits." Overlord commanded.

*With Max, fifteen minutes later*

The Bengal tiger walked outside to see how his two friends were holding up with their servitude.

"Max! Can you get me some of my smelling salts from my room? I'm sweating up something nasty out here!" Dega called.

"Yeah! No problem!"

The tiger jogged inside and went down to the barracks area and walked down the hall. He was surprised to see Monkey coming down the hall as well.

"What're you doing here? I thought the masters were all in the training hall having a discussion." Max exclaimed, stopping in front of Dega's room.

"Yeah, but I got hungry. I'm on my way to the kitchen to get some almond cookies!" The chimp replied, rubbing his stomach.

"Oh! Ok. Will you help me look for some smelling salts for Dega? I don't know where in his room he keeps them."

Master Monkey agreed and the two entered Dega's room and began searching. Eventually, Max noticed a carving on one of Dega's walls.

"Weird that he would have this symbol on his wall." Max stated, looking at it.

"Meh. I'm sure he just thought it looked cool." Monkey replied, shrugging it off and continuing his search.

They kept on searching, forgetting about the symbol of two intertwined snakes on the wall.

As Max moved towards Dega's window, he stopped searching and stood up; his ears were twitching.

"Do you hear that?" The Bengal tiger asked.

"Hear what?" The chimp questioned, pausing and listening.

"Sounds like ticking. I don't know where that i—"

Max was cut off by an explosion that went off in the room, sending the tiger flying out of the window and rolling down the large mountain.

*With Dega and Kiba*

The four heroes whirled around when an explosion went off on the right side of the palace.

"We're very sorry for the inconvenience, but we have to close to due a fire!" Kiba shouted over his shoulder, running towards the explosion with Dega right behind him.

A few minutes later, all of the masters and students, including Catherine, stood outside the site of the fire.

"MY ROOM!" The tiger lion shouted, falling to his knees, pulling at the fur on his head.

"Wait! Where's Monkey?" Mantis asked.

"He wasn't in the kitchen!" Takami replied.

"Max?" MAX?" Hope called, but hearing nothing.

"Aw, NO!" Kovu exclaimed, tears streaming down his face.

Faith quickly extinguished the fire by summoning ice to put it out, and everyone hurried in.

The masters and some of the students collapsed and started to weep over the charred, lifeless Monkey, who was slumped in the corner of the room. The other students were frantically searching for Max, who was nowhere to be found.

"MAX! BUDDY-BRO! MAC ATTACK?" Dega called in despair.

"MAX? WHERE ARE YOU?" Tang shouted.

*With Catherine, twenty-five minutes earlier*

The tigress sat at the top of the steps, looking out over the valley and admiring the beautiful sight. Her attention was stolen, though, by the flashes of sunlight off of a mirror down in the valley.

_Already? Now? Alright…_

The tigress got up and walked inside the palace. She dug into her nap sack and brought out two time bombs and walked towards Dega's room. She smiled and scratched the back of her neck, where a small tattoo of two intertwined snakes was and entered the tiger lion's room.

_A shame that these people have to die. I really was growing to like them._ Catherine thought, placing the time bomb under a chair in the room and setting the dial.

After doing so, she carved the snake symbol into Dega's wall and exited the room. Cat then walked back to the group of students, claiming that she had just gone for a little walk and also had to use the restroom.

_Overlord'll be proud…_

**Boom! Plot twist! Like the Emperor said at the beginning of the chapter, no one can be trusted! Even the closest of allies can be traitors, assassins, and spies for Overlord!**

**And to think that this is only a small surprise in this series…**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**I'll try to post another chapter tomorrow night, but I may not be able to until Wednesday night at the latest!**

**More to come…**


	7. Interrogation

**Hey everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the story, as usual.**

**Pretty big plot twist at the end of that last part, huh? With Catherine working for Overlord and Monkey dying and all.**

**By the way, if Monkey was your favorite master, sorry about that.**

**Anyway, will the heroes capture Catherine? Did Max survive the explosion? Who is the traitor at the royal palace? Continue to read the story to find out!**

*With Kiro, a day later*

Most everyone came to the funeral of the beloved monkey master. It had taken place at nighttime, however there were no bright lights from the valley, nor were there sounds of joy and play coming from the children as they ran through the streets. They had the masters and students speak of their fun times with the chimp to start off, had the memorial service for Monkey, then lit a small candle, carefully placed it on a pink flower, then pushed it out on the lake near the palace.

During that time, the white tiger master was standing behind his son, Lily, Ryo, and Catherine.

It wasn't until almost the end of the ceremony when he noticed a tattoo of the symbol with two snakes on the back of Catherine's neck.

_It was you… _Kiro thought, his eyes wide and anger shooting through his veins.

* With Catherine, three days later, nighttime*

After all that had happened, Cat had decided that it was too dangerous for her to stay with them any longer.

After packing her things and saying goodbye to the warriors and masters, Catherine began her walk down the stairs.

No one could see it, but she had a slight smile on her face. She was proud of herself for fooling them, and was sure that she would get away with them bombing.

Her face dropped, though, when red outlines of chains wrapped around her body and she fell face first into the steps, breaking her nose.

Crying and sniffling, the tigress was pulled to her feet by Kiro and brought back up to the palace courtyard. Once inside, Kiro flung her forward and she smacked into the ground.

"What the heck, Kiro? Why'd you do that?" Crane asked in anger running towards the two tigers.

"You think you're clever, huh?" Kiro seethed, paying no mind to the avian master and walking towards the sniffling Catherine. "Kill my friend and one of my students and then just leave like nothing happened!"

"What is he talking about?" Mantis asked, hopping on Crane's shoulder.

"YOU'LL PAY!" Kiro shouted, lunging at the tigress, but before he could reach her, Po and Tigress grabbed his arms and held him back.

"Kiro! Stop!" Tigress commanded.

"Please! Just…stop! I…I…What did I…do?" Catherine sobbed, rolling over to face the infuriated white tiger.

"Kiro! What'd she do?" Viper asked, slithering up to the scene.

By this time, all of the students were standing at the entrance of the palace, watching the confrontation unfold.

"SHE KILLED MONKEY AND MAX!" Kiro yelled, struggling against the Dragon Warrior and his sister.

"What…?" Cat asked, sniffling.

"You can't prove it!" Po argued.

"Sure can! Let me go and I will!"

Tigress and Po exchanged nervous glances, but reluctantly let him go. The white tiger master stormed up to the sobbing tigress, grabbed her bag, and held it up for all to see.

"I'll bet she has more bombs in here!" He exclaimed before dumping out her contents, only to reveal her personal grooming tools and some clothes. "Well that's not what I expected to find…"

"Can we stop this and get her some medical attention?" Viper groaned.

"Not yet! I know for a fact that she has a tattoo of two intertwined snakes on the back of her neck! I've been studying that symbol, and I think it means death. It was on the door when Kai died, and it was on the hospital door when Mr. Ping died, and it was on the old Emperor's jail cell wall when he died!"

Kiro grabbed Cat and flipped her over, only to find that there was nothing where the marking had once been.

"Paint works wonders…" Only Kiro heard the young tigress murmur.

"Okay. I know this looks bad, but trust me on this one! Will someone get me some water? If this doesn't work, then I'll let her go! I swear!" The white tiger pleaded.

Takami sighed, went into the palace and returned with a bowl of water a few minutes later.

Kiro grabbed the bowl and poured it on the spot where Cat's tattoo once was, making the orange paint wash off and reveal the tattoo of two intertwined snakes.

The masters gasped and Catherine's face sunk in defeat. She knew that she had been found out.

_Bingo…_ Kiro thought.

*With Max*

The Bengal tiger continued to slowly make his way through the jungle. After the explosion, he had been thrown about a mile away from the palace and into this forest. In the process he had broken his right arm and twisted his left ankle when he hit the ground, which made the process painstaking. It didn't help that he was knocked unconscious upon impact and had only woken up around midday.

"My arm is killing me and my ankle feels like it'll pop off at any second, but I have to get back to the others." Max assured himself as he made his way through some shrubs.

Eventually, around a half hour later, the tiger had made it out of the jungle and was standing at the bottom of the Jade Palace steps.

"Oh, this'll be a challenge." Max muttered before starting the grueling process of climbing the stairs.

*With Sin*

It had been months since the brown and grey fox had seen his friends at the Jade Palace.

Ever since his brother's death, Sin had kept himself secluded from the group, making sure as to keep them out of harm's way.

Little did he know that that wasn't the case. Far from it, in fact.

Sin stood in front of Kai's grave and sighed deeply before kneeling down to the tombstone and rubbing some mud speckles off of the name plaque.

It read: Kai Tuyado Fox. A kind brother and a faithful friend, until the end. RIP.

Sin wiped a few tears away from his eyes and stood up.

_You were right, bro. I am in over my head._

"Sin!"

The fox turned to see a wolf with a sword strapped to their side running towards him.

"I have a message for you!" They called out.

_If only I'd listened to you sooner…_

*With Drift, five minutes later*

The hyena looked around the area outside of Chao, Specter, and his room, making sure that no one was watching.

No one was.

Drift slid open the door and crept inside and began to rummage through Chao's drawer first.

"Come on, you gotta have some incriminating evidence in here somewhere…" The hyena muttered to himself as he searched through another container.

He stopped, though, when a dagger flew across the room and smacked into the wall.

Drift turned to see a stern Chao in the doorway.

"Get outa my drawer." He stated. "Do I rummage through your things?"

*With Chao, fifteen minutes earlier*

The tiger had already gone through all five of Drift's shelves and drawers, searching for any evidence, but found nothing.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Good. I was worried there for a little while, with his suspicious activity and all." Chao said to himself, breathing a sigh of relief.

*With Dega, Arizona, and Sierra, a half hour later*

"You had me fooled for a while there, Catherine. Tell me, are you really from Europe?" Dega questioned.

The heroes had bound Cat to a chair tightly, making it impossible for her to move. They had placed her in Master Shifu's old room, which was dark, dusty, and perfect for interrogation.

"I said my mother was from Europe, you dolt!" Cat spat. "I don't have to answer any questions of yours!"

"If you don't, then we get to let Kaizer come in and…persuade you." Zona stated gravely.

"You wouldn't." The tigress hissed.

"We would! You see, you killed one of our friends, and one of our masters, who happened to be friends with the other masters! All of this put together, and they've handed us a blank check to do whatever we want to get information out of you." Dega explained, smiling sinisterly. "Anything. We. Want."

"Throw your worst at me! I dare you!" Catherine snarled.

"Wish granted! Kaizer! Oh, Kaizer!" Dega called. "Ugh, you can never find a rage-driven ex-assassin when you need one!"

Just then, Kiro stepped into the room, holding Zina's half face mask, which she had lost in a fight a few months ago. "Actually, she can."

Cat stared daggers as the tiger master.

"Please. Spare me the tough act. You're scared and I can practically smell it." Kiro stated, sniffing the air. "Actually, I can smell it. It actually…smells kinda grimy. Can we get some air freshener in here?"

"Dad…" Dega prodded.

"Right. Anyway, you've seen this before haven't you? This belongs to an assassin that I used to know a little while ago. Zina. You remember her? You should."

"I've never met anybody with the name of Zina."

"Bring Musaki in! We need to see if she's lying!" Sierra called.

Eventually, the panda was brought in and sat down in front of Cat.

"So…You're the one who killed Max." Musaki said in a hoarse voice. The panda tightened his fist like he was going to punch her, but unclenched it and sighed. "I'm alright. I'm okay. Alright, say what you said before."

"I never knew anyone named Zina." Cat seethed.

Musaki thought for a moment and continued to study her closely. "Say it again."

"How many times do I have to say it? I. Don't. Know. A. Zina."

The panda was silent for a moment, then made his decision when her eyes darted to the left for a second in nervousness.

"She's lying."

"WHAT?" Catherine shouted in anger, shaking her chair in fury.

"Guys! You gotta come here!" Everyone in the room heard Kovu call from the main hall.

As the heroes and the master exited the room, the tiger lion turned back to face the battered and angry Catherine.

"I don't normally hit girls…but they usually don't kill someone like my buddy-bro." Dega stated softly before lunging towards her and slamming his fist into her jaw, making the tigress fall backward and slam her head into the ground, knocking her unconscious.

_Stay quiet…for your sake._ The tiger lion thought before exiting the room, only to find Max standing at the entrance of the palace, wincing in pain, but smiling.

**There it is! That's the end of that chapter!**

**Is it getting interesting yet? No? Darn…**

**Sorry for so many OCs. I know it can be very confusing and hard to follow, but stick with me; there won't be that many to keep track of soon enough…**

**Anyways, I won't be posting for a couple of days. I have to go to traffic court, due to my car crash I talked about in my last story. I also have a funeral to go to on Thursday. Don't worry, these two events are not related to each other.**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**More to come…eventually.**


	8. Traitors

**Hey everyone! I'm back again!**

**Hope you all are enjoying this! Remember to leave a review!**

*With Max and Dega, a half hour later*

"So you're the one who almost blew me up!" Max exclaimed as he walked inside the interrogation room, with Dega right behind him. "Can't say I'm not surprised, but I will say that you did a horrible job."

"Yeah! What he said!" Dega chimed in.

The Bengal tiger turned to the tiger lion. "I'm the one who told you not to bring her up here! Keep quiet this round!"

Once Max had turned back to face the captured tigress, Dega scrunched up his face and stuck out his tongue in joking.

"I've been told that you know the assassin that almost killed Tang a few months ago." Max continued.

"Lies…" Cat muttered.

"Deny it all you want, but we've finally gotten a hold of Kaizer, and he's itching to try out some new…interrogation techniques." Dega exclaimed.

The room was silent for a few moments before Max spoke again.

"Nothing?" The Bengal tiger asked.

Catherine just glared at the two heroes.

"Guess not. Kaizer! We need ya now!" Dega called.

After a few minutes, an angry Kaizer walked into the room, holding one of Kidduo's pistols in one hand and a knife in the other.

"He let me borrow one." Kaizer said before Dega could ask why he had one of Kidd's guns. "I need to be alone with her to do this."

"But—"

"Now." Kaizer growled, cutting off Max.

The two students raised their eyebrows and exited the room, leaving an angry tiger and a very scared tigress.

*An hour later and a half later*

After a while, Kaizer exited the room with a tired look.

"You alright?" Kidd asked, seeing his friend's expression.

"Just tired." The white tiger student replied.

"So? What'd she say?" Tang prodded.

"She works for an 'Overlord', but she doesn't know who they are or where their hideout is. The only other one she knows who works for them is Zina." Kaizer reported.

"Wait. When I defeated the son of Tai Lung named Xin a few months back, he said that Overlord always had a plan before he escaped." Tang thought aloud.

The whole group of students was silent for a moment. Suddenly, Takami had a revelation.

"Oh no." He groaned.

"What? What is it?" Faith urged.

"I just realized that the symbol on the back of her neck matched the symbol on the hospital door and the door when Kai was murdered."

"What symbol was that?" Max asked.

"Two intertwined snakes."

"That was carved into Dega's wall when Monkey and I went in to look for smelling salts! We thought you carved it because it looked cool!" The Bengal tiger exclaimed, turning to the pale Dega.

"So we know that this Overlord and this symbol are somehow connected, but that doesn't give us any clue as to who this guy—" Kovu started to explain.

"Or girl." Lupa cut in.

"Yeah—or girl, is! All we know is that someone has put a hit out on us."

"All of us?" Zan asked nervously.

"Not just all of us. People we know and care about." Skyler added.

"Well, not exactly. We didn't really care about the old ex-emperor of China, but he was still offed." Dega stated.

The heroes sighed and stood in silence for a few minutes before Tang spoke.

"We can't just stand here and let ourselves be picked off one by one! We have to do something!" The panda exclaimed before walking off.

Another minute of silence passed through.

"Zona, Sierra, Musaki, and I'll go check on him. I'm sure he's fine." Max said before he and the others walked off to make sure Tang was alright.

The room grew quiet yet again before the leader of the Hazards broke the silence.

"I'm worried about Tang," Takami stated, "He hasn't been himself since Mr. Ping died."

"We'd better keep an eye on him. Agreed?" Ryo added.

"Agreed." The rest of the Elemental Hazards replied.

"On another note, what're we gonna do with her?" Kiba asked, meaning Catherine.

"Jail anyone?" Ryo suggested.

"Jail sounds nice." Hope chimed in.

"Not my preference…" Kaizer grumbled.

"I bet. You'd wanna tie her legs to a block of concrete and throw her in the ocean or somethin'." Kiba joked. "I second the motion!"

"You're actually the third to agree on this." Sky corrected.

"Third the motion!" The wolf dog restated.

"What if this secret group breaks her out of prison?" Lupa asked.

"We're putting her in Chorh Gom! The only one to ever escape there was Tai Lung! Let me tell you, she's no Tai Lung." Dega explained.

The heroes all agreed to put Catherine in Chorh Gom Prison. There was no way she could be rescued there.

*Three days later*

The heroes all sat around there hang-out room in despair.

"I can't believe they broke her out of Chorh Gom Prison…" Kiba moaned.

*With Chao and Drift, an hour later, in the afternoon*

"Have you seen Specter anywhere?" Drift asked, walking into the room and stuffing some papers in his pocket.

"No, why?" Chao asked, putting the book he was reading down.

"I need to give him something and I don't know where he could be."

"I think I saw him in the courtyard, but that was ten minutes ago."

"Come on. Let's see if we can't find him."

Chao sighed, but got up from his cot and followed his friend out into the courtyard, only to find Specter talking with a hooded figure.

"Who's that? That's not one of our guys!" Drift hissed.

"I don't know who that is! Get closer!" Chao whispered.

The two crept through some bushes and inched closer to the point where they could clearly hear what sounded like the end of the conversation.

"Just do it!" Specter hissed. "You know that I don't like doing these things in person! Set up the meeting and let me know when you've done it."

"Right. I'll let you know when it's done." The hooded person replied in a deep voice before jogging out of the palace courtyard.

The white monkey took a deep breath in and released it. "Better get back to Chao and Drift."

Specter turned and started to walk back to the palace, but kept looking over his shoulder to see if anyone had been watching.

"Ack! Get back to the room!" Drift stated rapidly before the two took off through the bushes.

The tiger and the hyena scrambled over the wall and started to scale the side of the building, making their way back to their room. Suddenly, a gust of wind struck, and Drift lost his grip on one of his hands. The papers that were stuffed into his pocket flew out and started to fly away with the wind.

"SHOOT! I NEEDED THOSE!" Drift yelled.

"I'll get 'em!" Chao offered, starting to climb down.

"NO! I mean—just get back to the room! I'll get them!" Drift shot before hopping off the building and running after the documents.

After a few more minutes of climbing, Chao flung himself through his window and threw himself onto his bed and grabbed his book and pretended to read it. A few minutes later, Specter walked in.

"Hey. Where's Drift?" The monkey asked.

"He's out. He left some papers back at a restaurant." Chao replied coolly.

Specter squinted at his friend. "Your fur is all messed up. Were you outside?"

"No!" Chao responded quickly. "I mean—yes, but not intentionally. I stuck my head out the window to see the beautiful day, and I…fell out."

"Uh huh." The white monkey said, not believing his friend's story. "You, uh, didn't take a stroll through some bushes, did you?"

The tiger quickly noticed that he had twigs and leaves caught in his fur. "That's just from my fall. I landed in some shrubs."

"Sure ya did. I'm gonna go eat a snack now. Care to join? The prices for food down there are…" Specter trailed off as he took out his dagger and started to play with it, "…slashed in half."

"Nope! I'm good!" Chao replied, getting a little worried.

"You sure? I bet it'll…cut down on your appetite."

"You're starting to make bad puns now. Stop acting like Drift."

"Sorry." Specter apologized. "Thought I'd take a stab at it."

With that, the monkey left the room, leaving Chao to deeply inhale and exhale while clutching his rapidly beating heart.

*With Overlord*

After another series of horrible flashbacks from his childhood and teenage years, Overlord walked into the main room where Zina, Xin, and Jaguar X all sat in chairs or were lying down.

"You look so…old today." Xin stated.

"Making yourself look young when you're actually around thirty is difficult all the time." Overlord replied, massaging his head with his fingertips. "Moving on to a different topic; Zina, I want you to start training hard and frequently. If you are to beat these fools at the Jade Palace, then you need to, in modern terms, step up your game."

Jaguar X chuckled slightly at Overlord's use of words, but quickly stopped when an arrow smacked into his chair.

Overlord sighed and reloaded his crossbow, then turned back to the black tiger. "Understood?"

"Of course. I'll begin immediately." Zina replied, standing up and walking towards the training area.

"X, you need to infiltrate the palace and destroy any more evidence that they've gathered on me since the last time." The figure in black said, turning to the cat.

"Alright. I'll get on that in a few minutes." Came the reply.

"What do I do in the meantime?" Xin asked, getting up.

"I want you to pay a little visit to that snake friend of a warrior named Dega. You'll recognize her when you see her."

The snow leopard nodded and began to walk towards the door when a knock sounded at the hideout door.

Overlord put on his cracked dragon mask and sat back in a chair. "That must be our banker. Open the door. I've arranged this meeting."

Xin nodded and opened the door. The banker for the figure in black walked in and sat down across from Overlord.

"I've been wanting to speak with you for a while…" The guest began.

"Wish granted." The villainous leader replied.

"So tell me, why did you kill my brother?" Sin asked.

**Hear that? That's the sound of a plot twist coming this way! Yes! This is not the big plot twist! It's just setting it up!**

**Remember to leave a review! I won't be writing this weekend since I have a track meet to go to all day Saturday and I have to work on Sunday. Spring is my busiest time of the year.**

**Favorite and follow if you haven't already!**

**More to come…**


	9. Untrustable

**Hey everyone! What's the haps? Hope everything is going well for you guys!**

**Just letting you all know that I am now taking on the challenge of juggling two stories/series at a time. I've branched off of this fiction section now and I'm now doing a Sonic the Hedgehog series. Totally different categories, I know. I urge you all to give it a shot, because I've created a new OC who, in my opinion will be just as funny as Kiro in the past series (before he became a dad and mellowed down a little): Blizzard the Cat. Please check it out and tell me what you think of it!**

**I'm just gonna get on with the next chapter now…**

*With Max, in his dreams*

The Bengal tiger was in an empty, destroyed Jade Palace with no one around him. There were only a few pillars holding up what was left of the palace, and red flags baring the symbol of two intertwined snakes hung from the broken rooftops.

The valley was rearranged in a strange way. Immediately at the foot of the stairs of the palace, the graveyard waited, and then the rest of the battered and broken village stretched out before him.

"Whatever architects they used to restructure this place, I suggest they should be fired." Max said to himself as he walked down the steps and into the graveyard.

His eyes widened as he looked at the names written on the tombstones.

Lily.

Zan.

Lupa Takimuro.

Dega Takimuro.

Kiro Takimuro.

Takami Skyfang.

Kovu Shaozu.

Kiba Toshida.

Summer.

Li-Xiao Arizona.

Tang Ping.

Finally, Max came upon the last tombstone in the graveyard. This one sent chills down his spine.

Maximus Bushido-Akio.

"Scary, isn't it?" A feminine voice behind him asked.

The Bengal tiger whirled around to see Catherine standing behind him. A long scar traveled across her face and down her neck; a price she had paid for dealing with Kaizer for her interrogation. She didn't seem to be her usual murderous self, though. She seemed…saddened.

"Where are we?" Max demanded.

"In your dreams, of course. This isn't a reality…yet." She replied calmly, looking down at a chipped tombstone. "This is what could be the future, minus the oddly placed grave site, of course. If you don't stop what's coming. "

"Why're you here? How are you in this dream? Why are my friends and I dead?"

"Why I'm here? I have no answer for that. I'm not sure why I'm even speaking with you right now. Maybe it's to make you understand why I did what I did."

"You did it for your master, Overlord." The Bengal tiger shot.

"No. I did it for my father and sister. You see, Max, Overlord has them captive. If I don't do their bidding, then they die. He already killed my mother to make a point…"

Max cautiously walked over to the grave she was looking at and saw the inscription on the stone:

Stephanie Tigre. A loving wife, and a great mother to Catherine Tigre and Hannah Tigre.

"I'm…sorry. I didn't know. Why didn't you tell us this when we first met you, though? We would've helped!" Max reasoned.

"No. Overlord has eyes and ears everywhere. He would've found out and killed them."

"What can we do to help you then?" The Bengal tiger asked.

"Nothing." Came the reply, before everything faded to black. "Just keep alert and stay out of my way."

*With Xin*

While X scouted around the palace, looking for any evidence that the warriors had collected, Xin started to sneak around the barracks, looking for this snake that he was supposed to kill.

As he made his way down the hall, he accidentally stepped on a loose plank in the floor, which made a loud creak that echoed throughout the hall.

Xin winced like he had been hit, but breathed a sigh of relief when no one came to investigate. He crept over to his target's room and slid open the door. There, he found a nice room with papers and books everywhere, but his target, the snake student, was nowhere to be found.

Nowhere to be found, that is, until the snow leopard walked into the room and was ambushed by Lily. She wrapped him in a choke hold, coiling her body around his neck, then proceeded to make Xin slam his own head into a wall. Hissing, the serpent student slithered down his body, wrapped herself around his legs, and threw Xin out of the open window, leaving the battered and surprised snow leopard rolling down the mountain, slamming into trees and rocks along the way.

*With Chao, Drift, and Specter, the next day, noon*

"So…" Drift said aloud, sitting down next to his two teammates to eat lunch.

"Yeah…" Chao added.

"Mmmm…." Specter murmured.

"Yep. Great lunch they have today!" Chao cheered, hoping to lighten the mood.

"They're serving minced steamed vegetables with Bugica sauce. You hate that." Specter replied coldly.

The tiger sighed, knowing that his attempt had been shot down. "Uh, I guess they're growing on me."

"Alright. Let's cut the act. Who were you meeting with last night?" Drift demanded, leaning forward and glaring at Specter.

"Wha…? You two were SPYING on me?" The white monkey hissed. "Why would you guys…? You thought I was the TRAITOR? No! I was meeting with one of my friends from the village to set up another date with Nini, since I'm terrible at doing so in person!"

"Sounds believable, but we'll have to check with Nini on that. Since I'm obviously not the traitor, it comes down to you, Chao." The hyena stated, turning to the suddenly angry tiger. "You must be the one who plans to sink a knife into our backs."

"Drift, you've said some stupid things in the past, but this one tops them all." Chao spat. "I've been by your side since the academy and I've had your back when no one else did. Heck, I even helped you spy on Specter last night, when I could've easily let you go on your own!"

"Prove you're innocent!" Drift shot.

"Prove I'm guilty!" Chao challenged back. "We're going off of guesses here when it could easily be someone else in another team!"

"Would you both cut it out? I can't stand to be around you two right now!" Specter complained before standing up and storming out of the cafeteria.

Drift and Chao sighed in exhaustion and waited a few minutes in silence; the conversations of the other guards and warriors echoed off of the room walls.

"I'll go check on him." Chao stated, getting up and walking in the direction of which their comrade left.

*Ten minutes later*

After a little bit, Chao returned back to his seat across from Drift and sighed.

"He's not coming out of our room. Spec's locked himself in." The tiger said.

"Well, I gue—"

Drift was cut off by an announcer who entered the lunch room.

"WILL TEAMS 23, 26, 59, 72, AND 91 PLEASE REPORT TO THE EMPEROR'S THRONE ROOM IMMEDIATLEY!" The rhino boomed.

"Well, I guess we better be on our way." The hyena sighed, standing up and leaving the café with Chao right behind him.

*A half hour later, in the throne room*

Soon, all of the members off all of the teams were accounted for, including Specter, who wouldn't talk to either Chao or Drift, and were standing before the Emperor.

"I will start off by saying this immediately, so I don't waste any of your time: Teams 23, 26, and 91 are cleared. We have gone through all of your pasts and legacies and we find no case against any of you. You are dismissed." The serpent stated.

After a few minutes of shuffling around, only team 59 and team 72 stood before the ruler of China.

"One of you is a traitor who plans to murder us all for a 'greater cause.' Out of you seven that stand before me, being the three from team 59 and the four from team 72, I also want to announce the Gi-Da and Vuyo Jiang are also not guilty of treason and are not the traitor. You two are dismissed as well." The snake continued.

Two more warriors left the room. Chao gulped and shifted in his place while Drift started to sweat profusely and was swaying a little. Specter, however, seemed calm and cool.

"Now there are five of you remaining. While we continue to look into all of your pasts, I want to remind you all that we now have this assassin almost backed into a corner, so this means that he will lash out and try to kill as many as possible without being detected or pinpointed. I want all of you to remain on high alert. Be careful and be safe. I don't want any of you, except for the traitor, to be harmed. The rest are dismissed, but I want to speak with Drift…alone."

*With Drift*

After everyone had cleared out of the throne room, the Emperor looked down upon the hyena with a stern face.

"I want you to take what I say as a high priority, understood?" The ruler asked.

Drift nodded slowly, confused as to what the serpent was going to say.

"I want you to keep an eye on Chao, but especially on Specter. While I was scanning the room, the white chimp looked too calm for such circumstances. Have a watchful eye on both of them, because I don't think that the traitor is one of the two from the other team."

The hyena smirked and nodded once in confidence.

"Good luck Drift; I'd hate to see you get hurt." The Emperor finished. "You're dismissed."

As the hyena walked off, Drift shouted over his shoulder at the Emperor.

"DON'T WORRY, SIR! I'LL BE SAFE!" The warrior yelled.

**Very interesting chapter, huh? Lots of plot building in this one.**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**Again, Spring is my busiest season, so if I don't post as much as I used to, please don't worry. I'm just preoccupied with sports, school, and work.**

**I'll hopefully write more tomorrow!**

**More to come…**


	10. The End of Sin

**Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a little while, but between sports, school, and my new series, Sonic Legends (check it out please), I've been swamped.**

**Anyway, here's the new chapter.**

*With Sin*

_I still can't believe that Kai was investigating into Overlord's plan. He didn't even tell me! Course, there're things that I hadn't told him about me, so…_

The grey and brown fox walked down the main street in the valley, making his way towards the Jade Palace.

_Anyway, I better meet with Tang and Lupa and the others. I just wanna make sure that nothing bad has happened to them. I mean, all of their deaths are necessary for our goal, but I want to keep them around for as long as possible. Besides, I haven't seen them in months!_

Sin scratched the spot on his chest where a tattoo of the two intertwined snakes was and breathed in the fresh air as he began to walk up the mountain stairs.

*With Zina*

As the fox knocked on the door, the black tiger took out her crossbow and aligned the center of the weapon with Sin's chest.

_I hate all this sneaking around. I feel like a slimy lizard when I do this. I should be down there, ripping all of them apart…_

Zina sighed and waited as she witnessed the brown and grey fox was greeted with a warm welcome and brought inside the palace.

_Great. Now I gotta reposition myself to get a clear shot. Overlord wanting no loose ends makes my job that much more difficult and tasking._

The assassin packed up all of her things and started to move across the buildings, hopping off of ledges and sliding down sloped roofs.

*With Overlord*

"Why do you want Sin killed again? I mean he's done so much for us." Jaguar X exclaimed, leaning back in his chair.

"I don't annoy you with questions, do I? Unless you want to get too curious and end up like Sin or his brother, Kai, I suggest you keep your mouth shut." Overlord spat, standing up from his chair.

With this being said, the figure in black stormed out of the room and headed for his bedroom to meditate.

X couldn't hear him very well, but he thought he heard Overlord mutter, "No loose ends."

*With Chao, Specter, and Drift, ten minutes later*

The three friends sat in their room, all lounging around and waiting for something interesting to happen or something funny to be brought up, but nothing happened.

Nothing, that is, until Specter claimed that he had to use the bathroom and left the room, only to call out fifteen minutes later for help.

Chao and Drift bolted from their seats and shot down the hall, where a crowd of warriors had already gathered to witness what was going on.

"What happened?" Chao asked, pushing his way through the group of guards.

"Specter found Bin Le-Ti lying on the ground." One stated.

"Yeah, and it looks like he might be dead." Another added.

Drift and Chao knelt down beside the distraught white monkey and started to comfort him. The hyena saw Bin's cup and spilled drink next to him and swiped the tip of his finger through the liquid. After sniffing the liquid, Drift came to the conclusion that the drink was poisoned.

"Cyanide. Pure cyanide can only be derived in small quantities from apples. Apples contain minute traces of the stuff, but the other juices and nutrients in it balance it out." Drift stated.

"How'd you know that?" Chao asked, turning to his friend and raising an eyebrow.

"I took a class in poisons. Remember that?" The hyena replied.

Chao sighed and looked back down at the dead warrior next to Specter.

"Its official then," Drift's tiger friend concluded, "This was a murder. Looks like the Emperor was right. The traitor's backed into a corner now and is lashing out."

*With Sin*

"It's nice talking with you guys again." Sin laughed, sitting back in his chair and taking a bite out of his sandwich.

_Too bad they have to die someday…_

"Hey. Sorry to bother you guys, but could I use your guys' washroom?" Sin asked. "When ya gotta go, ya gotta go."

"Sure! It's just down the hall, make a left, then a right, and it should be the second door on the right." Takami instructed.

After thanking the heroes, Sin made his way over to the bathroom to take care of business.

*With Tang, five minutes later*

"Hey, I'm just gonna go see if Sin's alright. I mean, I want to see if he's recovered since Kai's death." The younger panda stated before walking towards the restroom.

There, Tang found that the fox had not been in the bathroom, but rummaging through the different rooms of the heroes of the palace.

"Come on…Come on…" Sin muttered.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tang questioned, anger rising in his voice.

"Uh…" The grey and brown fox sputtered, shoving the open drawers back into place. "Nothing."

"Why were you looking through our stuff?"

Sin sighed. "If I tell you, will you help me get out of a situation I'm in?"

"More than likely, yes."

"Alright," Sin began, "I'll tell you what I'm in…"

*With Zina, two minutes earlier*

The black tiger positioned herself on a building that she could easily see Sin. From where she was, she could see through a window in a room in the palace and spy on Sin.

She had just witnessed Sin get caught by Tang.

_Take out the panda, or my target; I only have enough time to kill one before the other runs for help. On one hand, killing Tang would make everything easier on Overlord, but on the other, Sin could easily spill critical information about our group to the whole valley._

Zina aligned the unsuspecting fox in her crosshairs.

_I know who I must kill._

*With Tang*

"I work for a person named Overlord. They've hired me to raise money for them and sent me here to primarily extract any information that you guys have collected on our group." Sin began.

"Overlord?" Tang exclaimed in surprise. "Why does this Overlord want us dead?"

"They want to take over China, and apparently only you guys can stop him."

"Isn't that always the case…" Tang muttered.

"They're hideout is located inside the old abandoned Sip-Ta Clothing factory, and I know that Zina as—"

Before Sin could finish, an arrow came crashing through the window of the room and slammed into his chest, sending the fox flying to the ground.

"SIN!" The panda yelled, ducking down and crawling over to the dying fox. "HOLD ON! HELP! GUYS!"

"Xin…is an asso…ciate…" Sin choked, coughing and hacking as he rolled on his side.

"Xin? The son of Tai Lung?"

The fox nodded slowly and painfully, clutching his wound and dragging himself across the floor.

"Hang in there, Sin! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?" Tang shouted. "DAD! MOM! ANYONE!"

Sin was able to get close enough to Tang that he could grab the panda and pull him in close enough where he could whisper a warning to his friend.

"A storm is c-coming…Tang. People you…though you knew will…t…urn against you and…kill you-r friends…like me…T-trust no one and…always be on guard… There will… be others, who…die…Prepare yourself, T-ang…You must always be on guard!"

Sin was slowly lifting himself to his feet while saying this to Tang.

"SIN! Get down!" The panda cried, attempting to pull the fox down to the ground again.

Just then, another arrow zipped through the window and smacked into Sin's head, killing him on impact.

"SIN! NO!" Lupa cried, appearing in the doorway in time to see the grey and brown fox fall to the ground.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Kovu demanded, storming into the room.

"Kovu! Get down! Assassin!" Tang cried out.

*With Zina*

The Japanese assassin smiled wickedly as she reloaded her crossbow quickly and pointed it at Kovu.

_Like shooting fish in a barrel…_

*With Tang and the others*

Kovu gasped in pain as an arrow slammed into his stomach, making the hero crumple to the ground and wriggle in pain.

Just then, Po and Tigress as well as Viper, Kiro, and Mei Ling burst into the room. The Dragon Warrior whirled around Oogway's staff and summoned a burst of wind to slam into the shooter. The heroes and masters saw the wind travel across the area and slam into the assassin, sending the shooter flying into the air and off of the building they were camped on.

"KOVU!" Kiba shouted crouching down next to his dying friend.

"Move! MOVE!" Po commanded, making the students scatter.

The grandmaster of the Jade Palace carefully removed the arrow in a mere five minutes and placed his hand over the student's wound, and after a few more minutes, Kovu was healed.

Lupa and a few others were kneeling by the dead body of Sin while the rest checked to make sure Kovu was alright.

"Zina…" Po muttered.

"Sin's dead. We know that for certain." Mei Ling stated walking up to the group of masters.

"Where's the symbol of the snakes?" Viper asked.

"Yeah, it is odd that I don't see it anywhere…" Tigress added.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kiro was able to catch something. When Sin was shot the first time, part of his shirt had torn. This tear revealed the middle of a tattoo on the fox's chest.

"I know where it was…" The white tiger master replied, bending down and lifting up Sin's shirt, revealing the tattoo of the two intertwined snakes. "It was on him."

**There it is! The big surprise dealing with Sin! Hope this makes up for my few days without posting anything new!**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**More to come…**


	11. Trapped

**Hey everyone! Sorry haven't been posting recently, but I've been ultra-busy!**

**If you want, you can check out my new story, Sonic Legends: Fire and Ice!**

**Here's the new chapter…**

*With Po, two days later*

The funeral for the grey and brown fox was small and short. Dark clouds hung in the sky, but no rain fell upon the valley. No birds were chirping and the wind that swept through the area was ice cold.

Other than Tang, no one spoke at the funeral due to the fact that they were saddened, shocked, and upset over the fact that Sin had betrayed them.

The fox was placed next to his brother. The inscription read:

Sin Cuoco Fox. A kind friend and brother who lost his way. Remember the good and forget the bad. RIP

_Another one down. How many more before we find out the truth? More importantly, who can we trust anymore?_

*With Tang, a day later*

The young panda furiously stormed through the valley, heading to a destination that had been imprinted in his mind since Sin had died:

_"They're hideout is located inside the old abandoned Sip-Ta Clothing factory…"_

That is what Sin had told the panda. However, Tang was skeptical to say the least. Sin had betrayed them once, so who's to say that this wasn't a trap that Tang was walking into. Nevertheless, this person, Overlord, had killed two of his friends, his grandpa, and one of his masters, so this was now personal.

Tang eventually made it to the old clothing factory on the other side of the valley. After sizing up the building and checking his surroundings, Tang decided it would be best to enter through the back, so as to not alert anyone in there.

The teen made his way down a dark alley and crept up to the backdoor of the structure. After carefully opening the door and peering inside, Tang entered the building and headed to the main complex of the building. There he found…

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

All of what had been there previously was gone, and only an inscription was left on the wall, next to the symbol of the two snakes carved into the stone wall. The message read:

'Pity we had to move. I was beginning to find it cozy here. So close, and yet so far away, right, Tang?

-Overlord'

The panda roared in anger as he stomped throughout the building, checking the other rooms for any clues, only to find more of nothing.

Just then, when Tang had given up all hope and had slumped into a corner, a rift opened on the other side of the room, and a figure wearing a dragon mask and a black cloak stepped through. The intruder had their whole body covered, except for some body armor that covered one of their arms; spikes and horns traveled up the side of the armor, and the symbol of two snakes was imprinted on his shoulder pad.

"Who're you? What're you doing here?" Tang snarled, standing up.

"Oh, just visiting my old home. Well, you could call it a home if you wanted to…"

"You work for Overlord?" The panda asked, his eyes widening.

"Dear Tang…" The figure in black soothed in their metallic voice, "…I am Overlord."

Tang took a few steps back in surprise at this news. "You're…Y…"

"Yes, I'm Overlord all right. I'm the Mastermind; the Game Player and the Game Changer; the Shadows in the Night; I'm the Eater of Death and the Relentless Plotter. What I want from you is your full cooperation."

"Why would I give you that?"

"Because if you don't…" Overlord replied, motioning behind him to Max, Dega, Arizona, and Skyler, who were being led through the still open portal by a jaguar and some other soldiers, "…Then your friends will die."

*With Kiro*

For some reason, several nights ago, the white tiger had another meeting with his dead friends, Song, Los, and Sashi, who told him to go back to the Imperial City Jail to check out the old Emperor's carvings on the cell walls.

Confused as to why he had to, Kiro packed up his things and made his way over to the city in a matter of three days to check out the cell.

Once at the jail, the master made his way over to the old Emperor's cell and looked inside.

What shocked him was that the carvings that had once portrayed Dega, Lily, Lupa, Zan, Monkey, and himself, were gone. The area from which the carvings once held the images of them was completely clean, like they had never been there.

_Creepy. It's not like anyone could've had the time to fill these in…_

*With Overlord*

_Yes. I now have that panda in my grasp. He'll do whatever I tell him to now._

"What do you want me to do?" Tang sighed in defeat after a few minutes of silence.

"Glad you've agreed. What I want you to do is for you to break into the potion vault in the palace, steal the one marked F92, and bring it back to me." Overlord stated.

"Why can't you just do that yourself?" The teenage panda shot in anger.

The figure in black shrugged. "It's more fun watching you squirm and do the dirty work. Besides, if you fail, it gives me another excuse to slaughter all of your friends."

Behind Overlord, Tang's friends kept shaking their heads frantically, telling him not to agree to the madman's plan.

However, the son of the Dragon Warrior had no other option.

"I'll do it. Just don't hurt my friends." Tang sighed finally.

_Excellent… Delay death for the grand finale later…_ Overlord thought.

**Will Tang get his friends out of this situation? What do the erasing of the carvings in the jail cell mean? When will I post the next chapter?**

**Well, that last one I can answer now. I'll post here in a couple of days.**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**More to come…**


	12. Overlord's Game

**Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while, but like I said it's been a pretty hectic season for me so far.**

**Anyway, I've seen that my views on my chapters have been going down slowly, and I know that the major plot development has been real ssssssllllllloooooooowwwwwww, so here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna, after this story, do the finale for the series. No worries, it'll be a four parter, not an all in one story kind of thing, making this a VERY short series. In the first part, Overlord'll be revealed; in the second, third, and fourth part, well, everything goes down, and some characters from the past will turn up, both good, bad, and even in between.**

**Hope that'll keep you guys enticed for the series! Now, the question of the current story: Will I kill off another character? We'll have to see… :)**

*A half hour later, at the Jade Palace*

_Alright. I just have to get a recipe scroll, like instructed, bring it back to Overlord, and he might not kill my friends. Just gotta be sneaky…_

Just then, Ryo bumped into the panda in the main hall.

"Sorry! Didn't see ya there." Mercer apologized. "I'm looking for Sky. Have ya seen her anywhere?"

*In Tang's flashback*

_"Because if you don't…then your friends will die."_

_"A storm is c-coming…Tang. People you…though you knew will…t…urn against you and…kill you-r friends…like me…T-trust no one and…always be on guard… There will… be others, who…die…Prepare yourself, T-ang…You must always be on guard!"_

*End of flashback*

"Uh, sorry Ryo, but I haven't seen her all day! I'm sure she's around here somewhere!" Tang replied before quickly walking off.

_Can't tell anyone about this. Overlord has eyes and ears everywhere. If I say something, then he might kill my friends!_

*With Overlord*

"Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock…" Overlord clucked as he fiddled with his dagger, leaning against the wall, next to Skyler and the others.

"Will you knock it off?" The yellow fox complained.

The figure in black turned to face the annoyed Skyler and patted her on the head. Having her hands tied behind her back and her feet bound together, the fox couldn't retaliate.

"Such beauty, any yet, it contains such rage and anger." Overlord stated, looking at Skyler with intensity, studying her closely. "Pity. Why is this?"

"Oh, I don't know." The yellow fox sneered. "Something about being captured, bound, and held hostage by a psycho doesn't bring out my best side."

The black figure chuckled softly as he turned back to his dagger and began flipping it in the air. "You say 'psycho', but I say 'visionary.'"

"Ooooohhhhh. A visionary! I always wanted to meet one!" Dega jeered, bouncing up and down slightly. "Max, can I go talk to the visionary? Oh can I? Please?"

Overlord growled loudly, walked swiftly over to the tiger lion, and held the dagger to Dega's throat.

"You may think that you're funny, like your father, but I never thought so. Believe me, I've seen your father joke around, many years ago, and it got him into trouble, and almost killed him. Because I'm such a nice guy, I'm gonna let you slide with that one, but one more word out of you and I'll PAINT THE FLOOR RED WITH YOU!" The figure in black roared, before turning and walking away.

As Overlord was walking away…Dega called out again.

"I actually prefer a nice beige color for this place rather than red." The tiger lion joked.

"DEGA!" Arizona shouted in annoyance and fear.

Overlord halted in place and began to shake with anger. Slowly turning around, he gripped his dagger with a lot of force before rushing towards the tiger lion and plunging his blade into Dega five times before wiping it off and sheathing it.

Dega choked and gasped as he slowly slid down the side of the wall and to the floor.

"Ouch…" The tiger lion gasped before completely collapsing to the ground.

Skyler and Max's mouths hung open in shock; not a sound escaped from their throats.

"DEGA!" Zona yelled, before turning to face the now calm figure and straining to get to him. "YOU MONSTER!"

"You say 'monster', but I say…'equalizer.'" Overlord mumbled before walking towards X. "Transport Dega back to the Jade Palace."

Jaguar X nodded and walked over to the tiger lion.

"Still…p-p-prefer…beige…" Dega choked.

X summoned a portal underneath the student, and Dega fell through.

*With Tang*

As the teen entered the formula room of the Jade Palace, he heard a sound behind him that made him turn around. Dega fell through a portal in the ceiling, which disappeared after the tiger lion fell through, and slammed into the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Dega!" Tang exclaimed in shock, rushing towards his friend and noticing his bad wound.

"Hey…Master Po!" Dega whispered.

"No! It's me! Tang!" The son of the Dragon Warrior replied, checking his friend's wound again.

"Why're you… saying… y-you're Tang… w-when you're…obviously Po?" Dega slurred.

"Hold on! I'll get you help!" Tang reassured before dashing into the serum room, quickly searching through the list of scrolls for the one he needed, pulling out the one marked F92, pocketing it, and shouting for help.

Almost immediately, his mother, Tigress was there to help.

"What's going on? Wh—DEGA?" Tigress exclaimed in surprise, scooping up the student.

"Oh…Hey Mrs. P…" Dega mumbled before passing out.

As Tigress rushed off to the medical room of the palace with her brother's son, Tang fished out the serum scroll and looked at it.

_Serum scroll F92…_

The younger panda unrolled the paper and skimmed through it with wide eyes.

_Mind influencing potion…Bends the will of others…That's what Overlord wants, but why'd he hurt Dega?_

*With Overlord, twenty minutes later*

Suddenly, Tang barged into the old warehouse with a look of murder on his face.

"Ah, did you get my scroll?" Overlord asked kindly, strolling up to the panda.

"Why'd you stab Dega?" Tang growled.

"Incentive, to make you realize, if you still had any doubt, that I'm not playing around when it comes to this matter. However, now that you're here, your other friends can go unharmed!" The figure in black explained.

The teenage panda chucked the scroll at Overlord, who caught it and pocketed the paper.

"Fight me…" Tang snarled.

"Oh, do we have a dark side here? I never thought you had one; just a happy and upbeat panda who walks around and eats everything in sight." Overlord sneered. "Foolish move on your part, but if you want to fight, who am I to turn down a challenge?"

The figure in black clenched his fists and got into a fighting stance.

"Tang! Don't! Don't end up like Dega!" Max called out.

"Don't do it, Tang!" Skyler added.

Overlord turned to the yellow fox, put his metal-covered finger to his mouth slit, pointed to her, and then put his finger back to his mouth slit again. "Shhh. You. Shhh."

"This is for everyone you've murdered so far…" Tang said angrily, preparing to charge.

"You think that just because you escaped my assassins Xin and Zina, that your suddenly good enough to fight me?" The figure in black taunted, throwing his hands up in the air. "Your mother couldn't even beat me! If your dear old dad didn't show up, I would've killed her!"

"RAH!" The inexperienced student shouted, charging towards Overlord.

"Pity. At least this'll be a very quick fight." The figure murmured to himself.

Tang threw sharp punches and kicks at Overlord, who in turn blocked them all, extended his metallic claws on his combat armor, slashed Tang across the chest, dragged his claws across the panda's face, and swiftly kicked his opponent in the chest, making the son of the Dragon Warrior collapse to the ground in pain and exhaustion.

"I would kill you, but I'll give you a sporting chance at defeating me. It'll be fun, however I'm giving you this opportunity, not your friends. Your friends are fair game for me to kill, but I'll toy with you all first." Overlord explained, walking over to Skyler and giving her a rub on the head, who in turn growled and tried to bite him.

"Madman!" She barked.

"Feisty…I like that." The figure in black cooed.

"I have a boyfriend!" She snapped.

"Oh, I know. However, from the few times that we've met, I'm not very fond of him." Overlord replied suavely before motioning to Jaguar X that it was time to leave.

A giant portal opened up behind Overlord and his soldiers. Once X and the henchmen had marched through the rift, Overlord walked up to the portal and turned around.

"You've…met Ryo?" The yellow fox asked, her voice now very soft.

In response, the figure in black gave her a thumbs-up, then turned to Tang. "Good job not telling Ryo Mercer about our little deal. That could've ended badly for you, him, and your friends. Until next time, Dragon Warrior."

With that, Overlord stepped through the rift, leaving an injured Tang and three of his friends, bounded together in a dark, abandoned warehouse.

**There it is! I hope it was good enough for you guys!**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**I'll try to post again real soon!**

**More to come…**


	13. The Heroes' Consequences

**Hey everyone! Sorry again for not posting sooner! Here's the new chapter!**

*With Po, a few days later*

After Overlord had left, Tang had untied the others and they headed back to the Jade Palace. Once they had explained to the worried and confused masters what had happened, the elders had calmed down.

"You did the right thing. Nice job." Crane complimented, nodding at Tang. "However, next time don't go up against someone like him. This Overlord is way too dangerous for one of us to face alone, especially students."

"I'm just glad that Dega's alright." Mei Ling sighed, leaning up against a wall. "Thanks for healing him, Po."

The Dragon Warrior nodded and grinned. "Just doin' my job! Ya know, being awesome."

"So, when's Kiro gonna get back from his trip?" Viper asked, shifting in place.

"Judging from his mission in the Royal City and the time he left, I'd say he left about two days ago. Being a three day journey to and from, he should be back either late tonight or early tomorrow morning." Tigress calculated.

"Impressive!" Kovu commented. "I can't do that kind of math yet!"

"'Course not!" Kiba exclaimed. "You're only ten years old, little man!"

The young brown lion scowled. "You know I don't like being called that."

Po sighed. "Ti, can I speak with you for a moment?"

The tiger master raised an eyebrow, but followed he husband over to a secluded part of the room.

"I'm going after Zina." The panda master stated once they were out of earshot.

"What? Why now?" Tigress questioned.

"Come on, Ti! Monkey, Kai, Sin, and my DAD are dead because of this Overlord guy! We know that Zina is one of his pawns, so if we can capture her, we can extract information out of her and find out who he really is!"

"Po, I almost lost you to Shen many years ago, and then another time when you faced Ki-Pa. I can't let you do this without taking a step back from this and thinking it through."

"I'm the Dragon Warrior! I can handle anything!" Po replied.

"One day there may not be a challenge that you can vanquish!" Tigress hissed. "Someone out there may be more powerful than you, and I think I've already met them!"

The panda thought for a moment, then remembered the one who tried to kill his wife a few months back.

"Overlord…" The Dragon Warrior murmured.

The tiger master sighed. "As much as I agree that we need to capture Zina, we need to think of a plan first."

"And what?" The panda asked, throwing his hands up. "Should we just wait here for her to come back and take another one of us out with a crossbow?"

"That's no—"

"Zina is out there and I'm SURE that she's behind my dad's murder and maybe Kai's as well!" Po exclaimed.

"You don't know her skill level now, Po. She could be stronger than you." Tigress warned.

"That's a chance I have to take!" The panda responded before walking off.

*With Dega, in his subconscious*

"Well hello there, Los!" The tiger lion greeted, walking up to the bobcat.

"How's it going, bro?" Los asked, holding out his fist for a fist bump.

"Not much! Been a while since we last spoke! What's been going on?" Dega replied, delivering the fist bump and beginning to walk alongside the bobcat. "How's my dead friend who's stuck in my head doing?"

"Not well. The afterlife's been real busy here lately, and none of us can figure out why. The traffickers, who ship in souls, have been building more and more boats to carry souls from the real world to here, but they won't tell us why. It's not like there're a lot of people dying. Believe me, I'd know." Los explained. "To top that off, I haven't seen Song or Sashi in a little while either. Things just haven't been the same here."

"Sorry to hear that. Why am I here exactly?" Dega asked, cutting to the chase.

"I didn't call for you. I have no idea why you're here. I d—Well, I think I know who called for you now!" Los exclaimed, smiling to someone behind Dega.

The tiger lion turned to see an old, short, red panda standing behind him.

"You must be Dega." Master Shifu stated. "Oh yes, I've heard quite a lot about you."

*With Zan*

"Hey, Lupa? You got a minute? I need to ask you something…" Zan said nervously.

"Sure, Zan. What's on your mind?" The female tiger lion replied cheerfully, walking up to him.

_Here goes nothing…_ The younger avian thought.

"With everything that has been going on, I've gotten some time to think about some things and… and… Oh, never mind! It was a stupid idea anyway." Zan backed out, turning to leave.

However, Lupa's paw grasped his shoulder, making him stay in one place.

"What's wrong, Zan?" She asked.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to date me, but with all that's been going on and with this Overlord guy attacking all of us, it was a bad idea. Forget I even brought up this conversation, alright? Sorry to have bothered you…" The avian stated rapidly before walking off.

The stunned sister of Dega stood in one place for a little while, unable to move.

"A relationship…with Zan? I've…never thought about it before…" Lupa murmured to herself, turning and walking back to the group.

*With Overlord*

"I've been wondering for a few days; were you…hitting on that yellow fox back at our old hideout?" Jaguar X asked casually, leaning against the wall of their new location.

"NO, YOU DOLT!" Overlord roared, throwing a dagger at the cat, narrowly missing his neck. "I'm too old for her, and she's too young for me. However, she is the epitome of the daughter that I never had."

"So, you want her to be your daughter?" Xin asked, picking his teeth with a sword.

"She will not agree willingly, so I'll have to make her." The figure replied, pacing the room impatiently. "Everyone has a weak spot; it's just a matter of finding it."

"In this case, it is…?" X questioned.

Overlord stopped, turned to Jaguar X, and smiled, showing his sharp, white teeth. "You'll find out later. ZINA!"

The assassin entered the room and stood before her master. "Yes?"

"Train. Hard. Often. The time for bloodshed draws near."

"Of course, Overlord."

With that, Zina went off to the training room to practice her combat skills.

*A half hour later*

"Overlord!"

The figure in black looked up from his lap to see a wolf soldier jog in.

"We've received word that the Dragon Warrior is searching for Zina." The henchman stated. "What're your orders?"

After thinking for a few minutes, the figure got up and put on his cracked metal dragon mask. "Gather ten of your best troops and lure him to the center of the village. We'll give him an unpleasant surprise when he gets there."

The wolf nodded and ran out of the building.

"Xin! You're coming too! Time to meet your father, Tai Lung's, killer. You as well, Jaguar X. I want you all to be there with me." Overlord commanded.

"What about Zina?" The snow leopard asked, getting up from his seat.

"She's training for a higher priority mission in the near future. We'll deal with the Jade Palace grandmaster ourselves…" The figure in black replied, exiting the building.

**There it is! Sorry for not much action in this one, but we're building up to it! Lots of cliffhanger parts with the different characters and all!**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**More to come…**


	14. Overlord vs Po

**Hey everyone! My schedule is slowly lightening up now, so I should be posting a little more often.**

**Anyway, with that said, here's the new chapter!**

*With Drift, ten minutes earlier*

"So, ladies, what's our schedule look like for today?" The hyena asked, sitting down with Chao and Specter for lunch.

"Oh, I was thinking that after our training, we could go around town and hang out with some of our friends." The tiger suggested.

"Sounds nice. What about you, Specter?"

The white monkey looked at his two friends and sighed. "I've got things I want to get done before I go have fun."

"Alright, and that would be…?" Drift pried.

"N—"

Just then, a loud horn sounded in the cafeteria, and the Emperor slithered in, making all of the soldiers and warriors jump up and stand at attention.

"As you were." The Emperor hissed. "Would team 59 please report to my throne room immediately! That is all."

*Twenty minutes later, with the traitor*

"You…wanted to see us, Sir?" Chao asked, walking in with Drift and Specter.

"I'm afraid I have some terribly bad news." The serpent began. "We've narrowed down the suspect pool for the traitor even more, and it now is down to one of you three."

The two warriors and the traitor staggered back a little and looked at one another in horror.

_Make sure your reactions match theirs…_ The traitor thought.

"I KNEW IT!" Specter shouted. "ONE OF YOU TWO IS TRYING TO KILL US!"

_I'll have to contact Overlord to figure out a new plan…_

"Hey! How do we know you're not the traitor, huh?" Chao accused, pointing at the chimp. "And you, Drift, why've you been going through our drawers at night?"

"I've done no such thing!" The hyena defended, getting up in the tiger's face.

"Liar! I heard you get up and shuffle through Specter's dresser last night!" Chao spat.

"You did WHAT?" Specter asked, getting more and more angry by the second.

"SILENCE!" The Emperor yelled, making the three in front of him stop and stare at him. "I'm placing each of you under close surveillance until we can determine who the assassin is. Until then, keep one eye open at night and be sure to watch your backs. You're dismissed."

*With Po*

After some searching, the Dragon Warrior had finally made it to the center of the village to look for clues there. However, when he arrived, everyone had vanished and there was not a sound to be heard.

"Did I miss something?" Po asked aloud, only to get no response. "Helloooo? Anybody?"

"They're hiding, Dragon Warrior." A voice stated behind the panda.

Po turned to see the figure in black with a cracked dragon mask on.

"Not the one you're searching for, hm? Sorry, but she's preoccupied at the moment. However, if you're looking for a fight, I've brought friends…" Overlord added, gesturing to the six soldiers who were now perched on the rooftops.

"Why're you doing this to us?" Po asked. "What've we done to you?"

"You took my stepfather away from me, many years ago. I'm simply letting you feel how I have felt before I became wiser and realized that feeling sorry will not avenge him."

"Shen was you're dad?"

"No…"

"Grandmaster Feng?"

"Guess again…"

"Emperor Jow?"

"NO, YOU IMBESSILE! SAGE! SAGE WAS MY STEPFATHER!" Overlord shouted, clenching his fists.

"Oh! The one who tried to take over China?" Po asked, still unsure.

"The one who almost succeeded in doing so, but instead was defeated by you and your friends."

"Would an 'I'm sorry' make ya feel better?"

"How an idiotic panda like you defeat someone like Sage is something I'll never know. Jokes are over, Dragon Warrior! Soldiers, ATTACK!" Overlord commanded, pointing at Po.

The henchmen leaped off the rooftops, drew their katanas, and charged at the panda master. Po reached for Oogway's staff, but quickly realized that it was not there.

"Looking for something?" Overlord jeered, twirling the staff in his hands before breaking it in to multiple pieces and tossing them aside.

_Well that's not fair…_ Po thought.

The Dragon Warrior ducked under one swipe of a sword and flipped over another soldier who swung at the grandmaster. Po sent three kicks to one soldier, sending the wolf tumbling into two of his comrades. The Dragon Warrior grabbed a dropped katana and blocked incoming jabs at himself.

"I've had years of training in the fine arts of AWESOMENESS!" Po exclaimed, disarming two soldiers and slamming their heads together, knocking them out.

"So I've heard…" The figure in black grumbled.

The remaining four assailants rushed the panda at once from all directions, but the Dragon Warrior jumped in the air and came down upon one's head, surprisingly only knocking him out.

"Three down, three to go!" Po called out.

"I might have to do this myself…" Overlord muttered.

The Dragon Warrior rushed over to an abandoned shopping stand and pushed it against a soldier, smashing him through a window; the henchman did not get back up again. Po then kicked the blade out of another wolf's hand and kicked him into the air. The assailant disappeared out of sight, and then reappeared a few seconds later, screaming until he slammed into a building rooftop and falling unconscious.

The panda turned and looked at the final wolf remaining, who dropped his sword and threw up his hands.

"I surrender." The last attacker said quickly, getting down on his knees.

"I thought so." Po replied, smugly.

Suddenly, a dagger whistled through the air and slammed in to the surrendered wolf's chest where his heart was, making the attacker jolt a little before slumping to the ground, dead.

Po whirled to face Overlord, who was now standing at the center of the village with two katanas in hand.

"Weak fool… He deserved what he got for surrendering early." The figure hissed. "Now you will meet a similar fate."

"Many people like you have tried to kill me in the past and have failed, ya know." Po replied blandly.

"Then let me be the first to succeed…" Overlord seethed before lunging at Po.

The Dragon Warrior tried to roll to his left, but his assailant was expecting that. Overlord slashed Po's arm with one of his swords and kicked him across the area. The panda slammed into a building and got up, clutching his arm, and glared at Overlord.

"Making you angry am I?" The figure asked sweetly before dashing towards the Dragon Warrior and bombarding him with more attacks, all of which Po swiftly blocked.

However, Overlord faked like he was going to attack the panda's left, which made the grandmaster of the Jade Palace reach towards his left, but the figure in black attacked Po's right, slashing his side and forcing the panda master to his knees.

The figure in black tossed one katana away, grabbed Po's head and forcing it back, revealing his exposed neck, and held the remaining sword high in the air to deliver the final blow.

"Like I said, panda, I'm the first one to succeed." Overlord stated.

Just then, a pot hit the assailant in the back of the head, making Overlord turn to see who had thrown it. It was a male bunny, no more than nine years old, with a stern face and a balled up fist.

"Leave Po alone!" The child shot.

Overlord turned back to Po and whispered in his ear.

"I'll be back. Don't go anywhere; not that you could anyway."

With that, the figure turned and slowly walked up to the kid, fiddling with his sword along the way.

"Foolish mistake, young one. I can't blame you however; after all, you are just a child." Overlord said, raising the blade in the air.

"Don't you harm that child!" An old female goat hollered, walking out of her home.

"Yeah! Leave them alone!" Another villager called out, exiting his shop.

Soon, all of the villagers had left their hiding spots and were approaching the villain in an angry mob fashion.

"I'll kill all of you!" Overlord shot, waving his sword back and forth.

Suddenly, storm clouds covered the sky and thunder echoed throughout the valley.

"Storm clouds? What?" The figure asked himself, looking up at the sky.

A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and hit Overlord's sword, traveling up the weapon and into the villain, making him quiver and fall to his knees.

"How is this POSSIBLE?" The hooded man asked himself as his arms were grabbed by the villagers and he was hauled to his feet.

"I control lightning and electricity." Skyler replied, marching up to Po's side with the other students and masters.

"Well, isn't that nice for you! UNHAND ME!" Overlord snarled.

"You're gonna go to prison for life, Mr. Overlord." Faith stated confidently, walking up the angered villain.

"And now, to see who this guy really is!" Kiro cheered, grabbing Overlord's mask and yanking it off, to find…

Nothing.

Nobody was behind the mask or under the hood.

After Kiro had yanked off the mask, the hood and boy armor clanked to the ground, revealing that no one had been in there from the start.

"Well, didn't see that coming." Dega said, his mouth hanging open.

"So, we're dealing with a ghost?" Kiba asked. "Sweet!"

Tigress slowly walked up to the pile of clothes and felt around, expecting to find a trace of evidence or something that proved someone was in there, but to no avail.

"Impossible…" She whispered.

*With Overlord, back at the headquarters*

A portal opened and the figure came tumbling out of the rift. Jaguar X was standing right beside the shaken Overlord and helped him to his feet.

"Thank you for getting me out of there before they discovered my identity prematurely." Overlord whispered as he made his way over to a chair.

"No problem. I also teleported the soldiers out of there as well, so they have no one to interrogate." X replied.

"Good work. Good work." The figure complimented, nodding slightly. "I was caught off guard again today. I must reconsider our strategy of how to beat those heroes and take China. I need time alone…"

Xin, who was sitting at the far side of the room, stood up and walked over to where his colleagues were gathered. "If I may ask, how did you get beaten?"

"The Dragon Warrior has friends…" Came the reply.

**That's it for this chapter! Sorry it took so long to update!**

**Please, please, please leave a review and be sure to check out my new series: Sonic Legends: Fire and Ice. It has an OC of mine who's just like the funny and playful Kiro in this story!**

**More to come…**


	15. Rematch

**Dear God, it's been a while since I've posted. I've probably lost a lot of readers since it has been so long. I apologize for the delay. Never meant for it to be this long.**

**Anyway, here's the third or fourth to last chapter in the story! Enjoy!**

*A few days later, with Overlord*

"Zina, I want you to finish up your training. I'm sending you on a mission to kill the students in the Jade Palace now, and I want you ready. Understood?" Overlord asked, walking around the main room of their new hideout.

"Of course, Overlord. Anything else?" Came her reply.

"Yes, I'm coming with you." The villain added, putting Chùfā zhǎo on his wrists.

Chùfā zhǎo, in Chinese, means "trigger claws." When the wearer of these weapons clenched their fists, they would squeeze a button in their palm, springing out two long and sharp hooks for combat out of each one.

Overlord clenched his fist and the claws shot out, ready to be used.

"I always liked those things." Jaguar X stated. "I envision that someday, someone will create a character in a story with weapons like those, except the person will be called 'Wolverine.'"

"What? Wolverines don't have those kinds of weapons! We need to get you a doctor, because you've gone off the deep end!" Xin laughed.

"Focus, idiots. If this attempt at eliminating the Jade Palace members doesn't work, then I'll be forced to put our final plan into motion." The figure hissed. "Get ready, Zina. We leave in three hours."

*Twenty minutes later, with Lupa*

After a lot of thinking about Zan's asking to date her, the female tiger lion had come to the conclusion that she just couldn't see herself in a relationship with the young avian. It wasn't anything he had done, it was just that he wasn't her type.

_Besides, the two guys that I had liked before are both dead, so I wouldn't want some sort of curse to be put on him._ Lupa thought as she walked up to her bird friend, who was entranced in the sky above.

"Hey Zan. How ya holding up?" She said, standing beside him.

"Oh! Uh, hey! I'm fine. I guess that it… I mean, everything is just… It is a lot to take in, I mean knowing that out there, somebody is trying to kill us, and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so."

"I hear ya. Remember that fight between who Tang described as Overlord and Po? Nobody could just up and vanish like that! I mean, Po's told us about one time he had to fight ghosts to save his old master and his friends, but I doubt that is what's going on here."

"Yeah. So, uh, what's up?"

Lupa sighed. "I've thought about your offer Zan, and…I just don't see us as compatible. I mean, you're sweet and kind and brave, but I just… I don't want what happened to Kai and Sin to happen to you. Both of the guys I used to like are dead at the hand of the guy who's trying to kill us, and I don't want that happening to you too. Can you understand?"

Zan looked up at the sky again and sighed. "Yeah, I understand. Thanks for at least giving me an answer."

"No problem. Friends?"

"Friends."

"Good! Well, I'm gonna go back inside and brush up on some fighting material. You can join me if you want."

"No thanks." The avian replied, looking over his shoulder. "I'm just gonna stay out here and take in the view some more."

With that, the female tiger lion shrugged, turned, and walked inside.

*With Max, Arizona, Musaki, and Dega, a few minutes later*

The three brothers and the tiger lion had just gotten back from their trip to the kitchen and had now decided to crash in Max's room.

"So how's Los doing inside that head of yours?" Musaki asked, sitting down on Max's bed.

"Haven't heard from him. The last time we, uh, talked was a little while ago. He said that the spirit realm was getting really busy for some reason and that Sashi, Song, and he would be out of touch for a while. Then Master Shifu, Po's old master, warned me about leaping before I think and that if I stepped back, I would see the big picture. Something along those lines anyway. I don't know, it was a while back."

"So, will I ever get my date with Sierra finished?" Zona thought aloud.

"If ya do, I'm not gonna be the waiter anymore! Forget that!" Dega shot, leaning against the wall. "Dega Takimuro is nobody's butler!"

Just then, there was a knock at the door of the room.

"Oh butler, will you get that for me?" Max joked.

"Are your legs still broken from that fall?" The tiger lion asked.

"I'll get it, I guess." The white tiger sighed, walking over to the door and opening it to find Catherine.

"YOU?" Everyone in the room said, surprised.

"Ok, back to jail you go!" Arizona exclaimed, forcing the tigress to the wall and pinning her.

"Max! I need your help! It's my sister and father!" Cat called out.

"What? Let her go, Zona!" Max ordered.

"Are you insane? She killed Monkey and almost blew you up!" Dega protested, waving one of his green power swords in front of Catherine's face. "Sharp, ain't it?"

"Hear her out!" Max replied. "Catherine, tell your story again."

After Cat explained why she had done what she had done again, the heroes eased up on her, except for Dega, who refused to sheath his swords again.

"Why're you here?" Musaki asked.

"Overlord is going to be attacking in a few hours, so he's too busy preparing for that to keep tabs on me. T—"

"Are we fighting a ghost though? I mean, when we took off his mask, there was nothing there." Arizona cut in.

"No. I know for a fact that someone is under all of those wrappings and all. I don't know the actual name of this guy or his species, but I know there's someone under the mask. As I was saying, this means that after Overlord has left, there'll only be two of his henchmen left, being Xin and Jaguar X." Catherine explained.

"Wait, Tang told us a few months ago that he fought this guy named Xin. Same guy and same mastermind. We also know that Zina is working with Overlord for, more than likely, revenge against the masters. Who's Jaguar X though?" Max asked.

"I'm not sure about X's past. The only thing I do know is that he is able to see into the future when he wants to and can teleport."

The white tiger snapped his fingers. "Remember a while back when we saw that blue guy tailing us but when we almost had him he vanished? I bet that was this X guy!"

"That sounds like Jaguar X. Getting back to my point, after we get past Xin and X, we should be able to get to my dad and sister and free them!" Catherine finished.

"Why should we help you?" Dega asked, walking to the other side of the room.

"If we defeat Xin and Jaguar X, you could capture and question them, I'll be able to show you their new hideout location, and with my family being free, you'll never see me again." The tigress explained.

"That last part is nectar to my ears." Dega stated. "I'm in, just no funny stuff."

"I'll come too." Zona added.

"Yeah, I'll join in also." Max chimed in.

"I have to stay back and warn the others of this upcoming attack. You guys go, and I'll alert the others and the masters." Musaki said before jogging off.

"We need some way of getting there undetected since we would get spotted coming from the ground." Cat thought out loud.

Dega smiled evilly and stuck his head out of the open window in the room. "ZAN! WE REQUIRE YOUR FLYING ABILITIES!"

"Alright, when do we leave?" Zona asked.

"Five minutes. Grab what you need and meet me outside." Cat said as she started to walk out, but stopped and turned around. "Thank you. All three of you."

"Don't thank me." The tiger lion huffed. "I still hate you."

*Eleven minutes later, with the masters*

"Ok, so Musaki has just warned us of an upcoming attack in a few hours, so we need to all of our students to be on high alert." Tigress stated, sitting in Po's room with the other masters.

"Oh, I can't wait to whoop some butt." Kiro squealed with glee.

"Easy, Honey." Mei Ling said to her white tiger husband. "You know what happened last time when you underestimated your opponent."

Kiro lightly touched the spot where he had been stabbed by Zina. "Yeah, don't remind me."

"I'll annihilate those guys for killing my buddy!" Mantis growled. "They're gonna feel the wrath of Mantis!"

"We all feel that way, but we have to keep our heads straight this time." Crane added.

"Well put. Couldn't have said it better myself." Po cheered. "We have to be extra cautious with protecting that giant hole where Dega's room used to be. Enemies can get in here with ease at that point, and if they get inside the palace itself, then we've lost the palace."

*With Max, Zan, Arizona, Dega, and Catherine*

"Seriously?" Zan gasped as he pulled his friends through the air. "No one else could've helped you guys?"

Max held on to Arizona, who held on to Dega, who held on to Catherine, who held on to Zan.

"Quiet! We're nearing the hideout!" Catherine hissed.

After another minute of flying, Catherine ordered Zan to lower them onto an average looking building and stop.

"This is it." She hissed. "Zan, thank you. You can go back if you want. We'll be fine."

The avian nodded and flew off at this remark.

"Now, we wait until they leave. After that, we make our move." She continued.

*With Overlord, two and a half hours later, at the entrance of the Jade Palace*

The figure turned to Zina and nodded. "Now."

The black tiger took out a bomb, attatched it to the gate doors, stepped back, and lit the fuse.

After a few seconds of watching the burning ember travel up the string, the flame hit its mark and the doors exploded, sending debris everywhere.

Zina took out her fire staff and ignited it before walking into the palace courtyard with Overlord behind her. The two looked on to see all of the masters and all of the students of the palace ready to fight.

Overlord clenched his fists and the claws shot out as he stepped forward. "Maybe I should have brought some backup."

The heroes before him were not able to see his face, since he had wrapped his whole body, including his tail, in black cloth before he had made his way up to the palace. It was surprising that they didn't recognize his species.

"Heroes of the Jade Palace," The muffled voice of Overlord boomed. "Time for a rematch!"

With that, the warriors and masters rushed the two villains.

**Cliffhanger! Don't worry everyone; I won't be gone as long as I was. I only have one week of school left before summer break, so I should be writing more then.**

**Remember to leave a review!**

**I hope this chapter made up for the long break without writing!**

**Follow and favorite this story if you like it! It means a lot!**

**More to come…**


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